Planting Memories

My friend Karla invited us to the Botanical Gardens for the morning.  Shawn and I have been there before we had children.  I didn’t realize they had such a fun children’s garden/play area for the kids!  The garden was gorgeous, and the kids had so much fun they weren’t ready to leave for lunch.  When we first arrived I told Karla, after seeing the many statues throughout the garden, “Well, at least we know by the time we leave the kids will have a much better knowledge of the human anatomy.”  Ha!  Karla laughed a few minutes later when she told me that she saw Anna discreetly point to Cody with a shocked look on her face at a statue of an unclothed man.  As we walked away Anna whispered to me with a confused wrinkle of her nose, “That man didn’t have any clothes on.”  I told her he needed to go shopping.  She agreed.  The play area was so fascinating.  The kids reenacted Tarzan at the Muny on the rope.  At one point, I walked behind Abigail on a rope bridge that was suspended high in the air.  As it shook back and forth Abby kept telling me, “Mommy, you could die on this.  You actually could.  I promise, Mommy, you really could die.”  She was such a comfort!  The play area was actually very large and plants sometimes blocked your view.  The kids could easily get lost.  I finally gave up and considered Dylan one of the big guys and trusted him to stay with Cody and Anna while I kept watch over Abby.  They had a play market and puppet area as well.  The kids got to pot a plant while there.  I think Cody has been the most attentive and excited about his plant today.  He told me as we were leaving the garden, “Mom, I wish my plant could cure cancer.  Then I would give mine to Grandma.”  That boy has one of the most tender hearts.  Another highlight, for my friend Karla, was that her youngest boy told her as we were leaving that he wished he could marry her.  I told her Botanical Gardens would hold so many more precious memories now that she has been proposed to there!  It was a fun morning outside, and as Anna told me today, “If the sun is out, than so am I!”

 

* Lawn mower is made from Legos, as well as the photo shoot animal board.  Neat!