seeds of wonder

Two weeks ago we joined a playgroup for an outing at the local Botanical Gardens. It was late in the afternoon and primarily a walk through the gardens (playgroup was for Meredith's age). It's a beautiful place with many areas to explore and plants to see so I've been wanting to go back with the kids and spend some time. With membership in hand and a planned children's activity nearly every morning of the week, it's a great place to take them. We could go every day and see something different.

We started our morning at the children's area, Seeds of Wonder. I love the name. It's a lovely area designed for children with everything from a small train that circles a succulent garden to a water table complete with hand pump and nets for fishing things out. There's a surprise around every corner which makes it a lot of fun for adults and kids alike. Today there was a storytime hour and afterwards Thomas was able to pot a small plant to take home. They have this available every single day so just imagine the kind of little garden he could have at home from these plants alone!

Walking through the Garden, we saw so many new and unusual plants. Thomas enjoys naming the plants and trees as we go... From left to right, in Thomas' terms: an oatmeal tree, mommy's favorite and a corn flower.

In the children's garden, we found a rabbit, a seahorse and a horse near the entry.

We concluded our trip with lunch in the Bamboo Garden. We sat on a bamboo bench adjacent to the pond with an older lady and had a nice visit with her. She comes to the Garden daily and had many stories to share with us. This funny (large!) frog entertained us all with his leaps from lily pad to lily pad and very loud croaking. It must be mating season, too, because we saw him eye a smaller frog, let out a few croaks and then jump on top of her. The poor little thing!