For my sister

My sister keeps teling me to update the blog.  (I think because my niece bugs her about it)  I just haven't made the time to do it. I also haven't taken many pictures lately. I have been spending my time getting kids to school and sewing.  Sewing is much more enjoyable, and I have finished LOTS of projects.

A trip to the Botanical Gardens with all their cool mazes.  They had set up all sorts of cool mazes just for the summer.  This is from the Sunflower maze. (it was a great night with blue skies)

 This is Buddy running through the patriotic maze, in the shape of a flag, with the blue field a tree with stars hanging in it.

 This was a maze of sheets, similar to the ones hanging on a clothesline, probably was more like a maze on a calm day, but on a windy day the kids loved running through the sheets.

 The hay bale maze was fun to jump across.

 This little guy hung out in his stroller and enjoyed the weather.

 This is just a shot to show a little girl who learned how to pedal her big Dora bike.  She can almost keep up with the big kids.

Botanical Garden Mazes

We finally made it to a bike night at the botanical gardens.  During the summer you are allowed to take your bike 3 nights a week from 4-7 PM.  We packed a picnic dinner and were there around 5 for dinner.  Daddy took Munchkin and Buddy on bikes and I walked with Princess and Scout.  It was a slightly cooler night and we had lots of fun. 

Daddy had some bike troubles with Buddy's bike, so it wasn't quite as much fun as it could have been for them.  Princess and I loved walking around and playing in the mazes.

This maze has artwork from different organizations or schools from throughout the city.  Pretty cool.

 This maze is huge and all hay bales, I think the kids like running on top of the hay bales more than finding a way through the maze.

This is the sunflower maze, it was pretty cool, except that it was within the Childrens garden and that area closes earlier than the rest of the gardens, so we could only look at this one from the outside.

I had to nurse the baby for a while, so I let Princess take pictures of the flowers with my camera.  She did a pretty good job.

Daffodils

 Yes, I found daffodils the first weekend in February, 4 days before we got more snow.  But they were there and I had to enjoy them.  I only found this one little patch, in the sun, but protected under a tree. 
We went for a walk in the Botanical gardens, and it is a quiet place in the winter.  I was looking for some more color and we went into the tropical garden greenhouse.  It was really warm, and there was lots of color.  This is my favorite shot.

The kids favorite part of our walk, watching the planes take-off from the hill next to the airport.  They have a speaker set up to hear the control tower, so they had a blast watching a bunch of planes.

My ever wonderful husband, who puts up with my crazy ideas and tolerates watching planes take-off, just because he loves his family.

Fall at the botanical garden

We decided to go hiking, and this week that just happened to be a walk at the Botanical Gardens. It was a beautiful fall afternoon with fantastic warm weather.  The roses were in bloom, and the kids loved smelling all the different varieties.

 The leaves were all beautiful colors.

 The kids and daddy got to climb trees that had fallen,

 This is Daddy and Nathan on the fallen tree from the other direction.  Jungle climbing.

 I wish they would let you take cuttings because all the holly and other berry bushes were beautiful and I would love some of these to decorate my house.

I love this picture of Daddy, he looks great with his binoculars looking at me.

Additional Botanical Gardens pictures

We couldn't go to the Botanical Gardens without visiting the WOW Childrens Area.  Playing in the fountains, walking through the green tunnel, and climbing trees.

This time we even rode the tram back to the parking lot. The kids and mommy were all a little tired. But Buddy had such a good day he even willingly smiled at the camera.

Botanical Gardens Mermaid - 16

This mermaid was really well done and had some cool details. The kids had to point out all the bugs.

Botanical Gardens

The Norfolk Botanical Gardens is fantastic.  This summer they have a special play area call the Enchanted Story Book Forest.  It has a bunch of storybook houses constructed for the kids to play in... check it out.

The Crooked Man -

Huckleberry Finn's adventures - The raft wobbles like a real raft and the 2 per seesaw was cool.

The Grandmother's house from Little Red Riding Hood - the kids favorite house.

The Old Lady Who lived in a Shoe and had so many Children she didn't know what to do -

The Tree Trek, where the Botanical Gardens took some of the 40 plus trees they lost in the Nor-Easter in November and put a trail for the kids to walk.  It also had signs and info sheets explaining the different types of trees.

Old McDonalds Farm - I didn't get pictures of the barn, but Buddy LOVED the horse swing.

The Three little pigs - There was actually 3 houses, but the others were blown down by the wolf, the kids climbed under the remains, but I didn't get pictures.

Alice in Wonderland - had tea set play sets inside the house.

Jack and the Beanstalk had a pretty good vegetable garden too with Pumpkins, tomatoes eggplant and lots of other stuff.

They also had a bunch of gnome homes that they built and sticks and garden pots with extra gnomes so the kids could build their own.

I didn't get pictures of the lots of other stuff for the kids to do, or the Butterfly garden which was pretty simple last year, but this year has gotten huge with LOTS more butterflies. 

If the weather stays cool, we will have to go back again this week.  It was a GREAT time, and the kids could have easily spent several days there. Plus the fountains and other stuff to do there. It is a great place.