• Home
  • About
  • FAQs

Mom in DCity

Subscribe and never miss a thing!

  • Motherhood Musings
  • The Hill
  • Local Adventures
  • Travel Time
  • Mamma Drama

Ebenezers is Not for Scrooges

June 3, 2012 by momindcity 3 Comments

Raise your hand if you like coffee!

Raise your hand if you like open spaces where you kids can run around while you relax!

Well if you like them, why don’t you marry them?!

I’m about to tell you a secret that will make you want to marry me. There’s this place, right on Capitol Hill where you can get a delicious caffeinated beverage and actually sit down and enjoy drinking it with your kids in tow.

It’s called Ebenezers Coffeehouse. You’ve probably heard of it; maybe you’ve even been there. But you haven’t done it the right way. How do I know? Because I’m there all the time and have never seen you there. I’ve almost never seen anyone there. Why? Because we hang out in the secret basement.

Perhaps it’s not exactly a secret to the hundreds of people who go there for meetings and concerts; but for families on the Hill, it must be a secret because I can’t think of any other reason why you wouldn’t all be there all the time.

Our weekend routine goes like this: grab our beverages, squeeze by the crowds of people upstairs and go to the basement. There, we have the entire place to ourselves. The girls drink hot chocolates, then play games, dance, sing, hula hoop, whatever their hearts desire– all while Dave and I enjoy a relaxing cup of coffee.

You can even hula hoop here
It is a staging ground for our weekend adventures. We go there first thing in the morning and decide what to do with the rest of our day. Sometimes we hang out there for hours, especially during cold winter days. There are TVs showing news or sports and a sound system that usually plays smooth jazz or R&B (which happens to be my fave). There are bathrooms and water fountains, so there’s no need to go upstairs. And ever time we’re there, we ask the same question, “why isn’t anybody else here?”

It's just us in here!
You can sit on soft leather chairs, in a booth, or in one of the many and stackable chairs. But don’t sit on those; they really need to be replaced, and a certain member of our family may or may not have had one collapse beneath him).

We’ve brought family and friends here, and it never disappoints. Occasionally, a rogue single person comes down hoping to get some work done. But my girls manage to scare them off fairly quickly. We even thought about renting the space for one of the girls’ birthday parties, but (just like everywhere else on the Hill) it was expensive.

Why am I telling you about this? Because I love you! Well, that and the fact that I can’t keep a secret. But now that you know, I’ll see you next weekend!

Filed Under: The Hill Tagged With: coffee shop, dc, ebenezers, kid friendly, the hill, washington

DC Must See: National Cathedral at Sunset

June 2, 2012 by momindcity Leave a Comment

Saturdays are all about packing in as many things as we can into the shortest amount of time possible. It’s exhausting. If I listed everything we did today, you’d feel tired. Wanna see?

  • Girls’ dance class
  • Trip to Target
  • Family Fun Day at a potential school for Zana
  • Quick lunch at a Metro 29 Diner
  • Summer camp orientation for Lira
  • 6-year-old’s birthday party
  • Visit with a friend traveling through town
  • Evening visit to the National Cathedral
  • Outdoor dinner and gelato at Pete’s APizza (that’s not a typo)

I told you!

I’m not sure why we live our lives this way, but we do– every single weekend. Some of the things on the list are repeats: We’ve been going to the same dance studio every Saturday for the past three years.

Tutu girls
Birthday parties (as we all know) are a weekly occurrence; in it’s a miracle we were only invited to one this weekend (it’s a curse being so gosh darn popular). Pete’s and 29 Diner are two of our local standbys.

But things like tonight’s sporadic trip to the National Cathedral to watch the sunset are why I love living in DCity.

Love the Gothic architecture
We are so blessed (you know, because we’re at a cathedral)  to have these opportunities right in our back yard. I remember coming to DC from Texas, as a kid. My parents dragged us to every monument and every museum (mostly against our will) during our 3-day weekend trips. And it wasn’t until I was older that I appreciated any of it. For my girls, it’s different. We go to the WWII Memorial, the Washington Monument and the Smithsonian Museums like some families go to Wal-Mart. They don’t think it’s a drag; it’s just what they’re used to doing. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Local Adventures Tagged With: dc, kids, mom, motherhood, national cathedral, washington

Family Fashion: The Terrible Tutu

May 25, 2012 by momindcity 6 Comments

If you saw Zana, right now, you probably wouldn’t recognize her. It’s the first time in months (seriously) that she’s not wearing a tutu.  The amount of dancewear this child owns could clothe a small country.

Here’s Zana in a tutu (and a crown) at the WWII Memorial:

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Motherhood Musings Tagged With: dc, girly girls, motherhood, tutu, washington

It Ain’t Easy Being Green on Capitol Hill

May 22, 2012 by momindcity Leave a Comment

I may have mentioned before that my husband is a bit of a tree hugger. It’s not that I don’t appreciate a good tree– you just won’t ever see me picking up beer bottles on the side of the road to take home and put in our recycling bin.

Hopefully, my girls take after me and leave the trash alone. Why? Because of reports like this one today from the  Baltimore Police Department:

“Kids are putting Drano, tin foil, and a little water in plastic drink bottles and capping it up – leaving it on lawns, in mail boxes, in gardens, on driveways etc. just waiting for you to pick it up intending to put it in the rubbish, but you’ll never make it!!!

If the bottle is picked up, and the bottle is shaken even just a little – in about 30 seconds or less it builds up enough gas which then explodes with enough force to remove some of your extremities.”

You’ll never make it?!?! Remove some of your extremities?!?!

This sounds serious. The report went on to say that this isn’t just happening in Baltimore, but all over the area!

I’m not sure who’s responsible, but it sounds like “kids” to me. And it’s “kids” who seem to cause all of the problems in our area. It was “kids” who were shooting at one another as I was dropping off the girls at school one morning. It was “kids” who put a bullet hole in our window the week before we moved into our house. “Kids” sell drugs on our corner. “Kids” who drive so many people out of the neighborhood.

I hate to blame the neighborhood high school students (as if they ever actually go to school) for something they didn’t do; it just seems like something they would do based on what I’ve seen so many times before.

I know that young people everywhere are mischievous. My parents and the owners of The Magic Time Machine were more than a little unhappy with my brothers when they lit the trash can on fire in the restaurant bathroom. But those things are usually not the norm… and they certainly don’t cause people to move out of their homes to escape.

If I could name the top 3 reasons to leave Capitol Hill they would be:

  1. those “kids” on the corner
  2. the parking situation
  3. the Persistent Peggies (just kidding about this one, but they are annoying)

For families like ours who love our life here and want to stay, a lackadaisical attitude is not an option. We must stay informed and be each other’s watchful neighbors. We’re all in this together. So please, neighbors, watch my husband. If you see him kneeling down to pick up a soda bottle tell him to leave it alone and go hug a tree instead.

Like Father Like Daughter

Filed Under: The Hill Tagged With: Capitol Hill, crime, dc, drano bombs, recycling, washington

It’s Her Party But I’ll Cry if I Want To

May 19, 2012 by momindcity 3 Comments

The weekend is upon us. Not just any weekend– it’s Cinco de Party-o weekend! Five birthday parties in less than 48 hours. Will we survive?

If you think I’m being overly-dramatic, then you haven’t met certain moms on the Hill.

Let me introduce you to one of them. Well call her Persistent Peggy (just plain old Peggy, for short).  Here’s an example of a conversation that may or may not have happened last night…

Peggy: Hi Besa, I was wondering if you got an invitation to so-and-so’s birthday party tomorrow? My daughter says she’s invited but I never got one.

Me: I got an evite a couple of weeks ago. Did you check your email?

Peggy: I didn’t see one, but maybe it went to my old email address.

Me: Maybe…..

Peggy: Can I get so-and-so’s mom’s phone number so I can call and see if she’s invited?

Me (silently to myself): Sure, great idea. That won’t be awkward or anything.

Me: Let me look at the evite and see if the number is there. Oh, look! A list of who was invited. Only a very small group of girls and I don’t see your daughter on the list. Sorry.

Peggy: Can I have her mom’s number anyway??

Me (silently to myself): Good God, are you seriously going to call and invite your daughter to the party?

I gave the number and hung up wondering if I should call the other mom to warn her. Nah…

Fast forward to the next morning at dance class– would you believe that Peggy asked us to take a gift to the birthday girl on their behalf?

Why do I feel like this is the beginning of a news story? I think we all remember that Texas Cheerleader mom.

As I walked Lira and the two presents into the birthday party, I couldn’t help but think…I barely have time to deal with my own social life, much less my daughter’s.

It feels like a bad episode of Maury Povich. You know the ones: a girl who didn’t feel pretty enough or cool enough in high school wants to show how gorgeous and awesome she has turned out to be. She’s usually a stripper now.

The point is… wouldn’t it be great if we didn’t push our own insecurities on to our children?! If your kid isn’t invited to a birthday party, that’s ok! It may not feel ok to you, but it is. I’ll admit that when Lira isn’t invited to a party it bothers me a little. Here’s how I deal with it: I remind myself that Lira is more charming, beautiful and witty than their child. If they invited Lira, she would outshine the birthday girl! So really, I can’t be upset. It’s like how some women pick less attractive friends to be their bridesmaids.  It’s not how I chose to do things at my wedding, but I’m also a Gisele Bundchen look-alike so I never had to worry about that.

Wouldn't You Want Her at Your Party?

One party down, four to go!  I wonder who wasn’t invited to those parties.

Filed Under: Mamma Drama Tagged With: birthdays, dc, helicopter parents, parenting, washington

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • Next Page »

Hi! Welcome to MominDCity

besapinchotti

besapinchotti

View Full Profile →

Social

Looking for Something?

Blogroll

  • Bitches Who Brunch
  • Expandng
  • KidFriendlyDC
  • Mommy Shorts
  • Prince of Petworth
  • Project Beltway
  • Scary Mommy
  • The Hill is Home
  • We Go To & Fro

Copyright © 2025 · Lifestyle Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in