arboretum... revisited

I believe we will be revisiting a lot. I can't get over how much they love being in a garden. There is nothing electronic. It's just one wooden yellow house, a few Adirondack chairs, some mondo fish to feed (bring quarters) and paths through pretty flowers and plants. And yet they fuss when it is time to leave. Maybe the novelty hasn't worn off yet, we've only been a handful of times.

This was the first visit together and it wasn't our Plan A for Thursday. I got everyone up and ready to go before 9:00 so we could go to the gymnastics academy for free play Thursday. On Wednesdays and Thursdays they let kids 5 and under play on the fun equipment from 9:00 to 11:00 for only $5! 2 hours of climbing though foam cubes in a huge pit, jumping on trampolines, running, somersaulting, walking on balance beams, swinging on trapezes.... wears a body out! At least one that is age 5 and under!! It was going to be the first time they go to go together. We pulled in right at 9:00 and saw the sign "Closed. Spring Break April 18-25". Argh!

Now, I have 2 fussy kids in the car - one of which is insisting that I am not making him happy! The other one was trying to reason with him, "She didn't know!" Glad someone has my back.

But, the worst part was, they were in flip flops. You take your shoes off as you enter, so we just grabbed something easy to get on and off. So, I didn't want to go anywhere else in just flip flops. I didn't really want to go to the Children's Museum anyway (which would have been a great save) because it is spring break and that place takes kids of all ages... including the masses who are normally in school when we go. I was looking forward to gymnastics being quieter because the little kids with older siblings who were out of school for the week wouldn't be there since the over 5s couldn't come.

So, we headed home to change our shoes and I offered the Arboretum as an option. Squeals of delight! Awesome - we'll go there. I was assuming it wasn't a place hoards of people flocked to on spring break.

"First, let's run to Kmart and double check for sandals." Turns out, they did have a cute pair of sandals, but not in her size. And by then, I was satisfied with the flats. I just needed to double check before cutting the tags off her pair at home. OK, done looking. We played in the toy aisles for a few minutes before heading out... "Can we ride the merry-go-round?" She even knows the best argument, "We won't be this little forever, you know." Yeah, I know. I'm the one you heard say it once. Besides, I already had 50 cents in my pocket to ride it before they even asked! I am that with it! OK, off to the arboretum. I was still confident it would be peaceful, until I pulled into the parking lot and saw 9 million cars. We even had to park on the side in the "additional parking here" lot! Well, let me tell you - I have no idea where those people were. Maybe they all parked there for the day and got on a bus to somewhere else, because there were maybe 4 other families roaming the grounds and that was all. Yay!

The kids ran ahead of me and before I was even in sight of the Yellow House, I could hear Carl screaming at Gretchen, "Get out of my house!" one quick threat ("If I hear you yell one more time, we're going home. No warnings.") and they were playing happily in their yellow house.

I grabbed a nice Adirondack chair in the shade and let them run around happily. Two older couples approached them and I braced myself for Carl to tell them they were not welcome in His Yellow House, but it was the opposite. "Come into our house." Gretchen then gave them a tour of the backyard. Carl showed them the water sculpture - even had them placing their hands in the water! Gretchen lead them into the garden area followed by Carl - who informed them, "There is a shark coming!" By then, they had gotten the fifty cent tour for sure. They thanked their hosts for their generosity and said they had to catch up to their husbands. I think the shark sighting scared them off!
We bought handfuls of fish food and the fish enjoyed more lunch. They had a snack with the little girl ahead of us. And after we left, 2 more kids had quarters and food for them. Lucky fish!

We headed home for lunch, stopping first at pre-school to pick up our book order that had arrived on Monday. There are only four more weeks left of pre-school now that spring break is over! Then, the whole summer off before kindergarten!! Hopefully, we can make the most of our summer - we sure squeezed a ton of fun things into this spring break!!!