Botanic Gardens

Since we went to church last night, we were having a quiet, indoor morning at home (the weather was 17 degrees again), when I announced that we were going on a surprise adventure.  Everyone got in the car, and I told them that they were going to have to guess not only where we were going, but also which direction to tell Daddy to turn to get there, because Ben didn't know where we were going either.  The girls thought that was really fun!  Ben figured out that we were going to Olbrich about 10 minutes into the drive, but the girls didn't figure it out until we were a block away and could see the gold roof of the Thai temple.

It was the last day of the spring flower show, which we had enjoyed last year and the year before.   The girls loved using a guide to find all the different flowers and learn their names.   They could recognize daffodils and tulips, but were stumped by the tulips with frilly petals.  They really liked the ranunculas (because they were full and pink), the hyacinths (because they smelled good), and the snapdragons (although I didn't let them pinch the flowers). 

 This year, the flower show had wooden puzzle dinosaurs scattered among the flowers, which the girls thought was fantastic.

They particularly liked the stegosaurus that looked like she was eating a big bunch of purple daisies.  They also liked the polka dotted pteranadon flying from the ceiling, and the baby pteranadon hatching from an egg in a nest in a tree.  We think Grandma should add dinosaurs to her garden this year!

Here they are posing with all the flowers:

It was too cold this year to walk outside, and there would have been absolutely nothing green or spring-like to see, but we did go in the conservatory to enjoy the warmth and humidity.  Nathaniel enjoyed walking around and drooling on his carrier.