Inniswood Metro Garden--- Splendid in Spring!

  Last year we visited Inniswood Metro Garden in mid-May, just after the bulbs were gone and the tree buds were changing to tender young leaves. It was lovely, but I saw the skeleton stems of tulips that had already spent their blooms and blossom carpets wilting on the ground, and I longed to see the gardens in all their spring splendor. Catching the tulips and trees in peak bloom has been on my bucket list since then!

 We met up with some med-school friends for lunch and frolicking through the gardens. Emmett slurped down his 2nd 'pouch' puree like a pro, then army crawled right over to 6-month-old J to swat at his head. :) Linz and I chatted while our children ran all over the place, just thrilled to be outside. I don't know that very much lunch was consumed, though Caroline did eat at least a bowl full of grape tomatoes that Linz brought!

  aren't those trees gorgeous? That tiny dot up there is Caroline, eager to get going. 

 some kind of Trillium, don't remember the exact variety. 

 We were watching a frog when this snake left the reeds and slithered out into the water!

 The girls were fascinated by the snake and quite concerned for the safety of the frog. The snake did not seem to be aware of his amphibious neighbor, however, so no graphic trauma ensued. 

 So many varieties of tulips. Aren't these pale yellow ones so cheerful?

  Emmett was in pretty good spirits, especially after we stopped for a couple of milk breaks. 

 He likes to peek back up and flirt with me while I push the stroller.

The kids loved this cute little gazebo house. It reminds me of a birdhouse. 

  

  The stone retaining walls were perfect balance beams. 

 Caroline was REALLY excited about the "rainbow flowers!!!" and wanted to get her photo taken with them. 

   Gwen practices ballet moves every time I try to take her picture now. If I don't want ballet poses, I have to take sneaky pics. 

  This was one of 2 highlights for the kids: a water activity with locks and wheels. Very cool! Everyone got wet, there were several bouts of tears and splashing, and more than one apology needed, but it was a blast and the kids played here for almost an hour. 

  Gorgeous tulips here too. 

  and a sweet little mini 'house'

 clearly, I am not a selfie proficienada (yeah, I just made up that word), but I adore Linzi and am so glad we got together to strengthen our beautiful friendship in such a beautiful place. And I love this picture because it is of US, even if it isn't super flattering. What matters to me is the relationship and the memories and I love this gal!

 Gwen hopping over a little stone bridge. 

 cool little stream-waterfall thing

and an imperfect pic of my three wonderful children (hey, even though I only got 1 of Caroline's lovely eyes, at least no one is blurry! I'll take that miracle!) Emmett is even smiling despite the fact that he was refusing to nap and was a grumpy pants by the time we took this photo on our way home. But more on Emmett and photography in another post. 

When I am outdoors among all of God's creations, I am calm. It helps to put things in perspective, reminds me to keep cultivating the sweet tender 'plants' in my family, and encourages me to take every opportunity to appreciate the moments blooming RIGHT NOW. Each season quickly fades into another, each blossom is so fragile. And I'm grateful for my blossoms. I am blessed. 

*contended sigh*

Isn't spring wonderful?

Spring Exploring

Spring is upon us (finally!) and we are loving the color and outdoor exploration!

flower-themed ABC practice

flower pattern-making

little daffodils (these were made at book club--- all the kids wanted to use these mini cupcake liners because they were so cute, though the flower size would look better with regular sized liners)

Gwen has been enjoying our rainbow of flowers

Caroline is loving running around outside and looking at the dirt in the sidewalks

trees need to be smacked by sticks. It is a right of childhood passage, I think. 

We had a week themed around rain and rainbows. I happened to have found these rainbow water beads on clearance (SCORE!!!) and pulled em out to do a little 'science' activity. See how small they start out? This is awesome...

Caroline and I talked about what she thought was going to happen and defined that as a 'hypothesis'. 

She was pretty excited to see them growing bigger only 20 minutes later. 

 

After 2 hours, they were huge! and they have this AMAZING tactile feel that just demanded exploration. Lots of squishing and sorting ensued. 

They tried to sort out which colors grew the largest and which ones remained the smallest. 

Moving the beads from one receptacle to another was just pure joy. I couldn't believe that these 15 cent things could keep my kiddos entertained for OVER AN HOUR!!!! Now THAT is a fabulous kid activity! :)

ps. you know what else is cool? They shrink back down as the water evaporates! 

Princess, Knights and Dragons Preschool--- Learning when NOT at our best

I realize I am so very NOT up-to-date on documenting our preschool, book club, and after school activities. This is sad for numerous reasons, most of them only important to me, but especially for extended family who never got a chuckle out of seeing my kids doin their educational 'thang'. So, for the grandmas. And anyone else that doesn't mind going BACK a couple months. This post about dragons, knights, and princesses is for you!

Dragon week was right around Lunar New Year (otherwise known as Chinese New Year, but that smacks of exclusivity for a holiday celebrated all over East Asia and parts of SE Asia and, frankly, my Korean sensitivity forbids me from using that phrase!).  Our dragon week was NOT about the holiday, though we DID read some books about it. Gwen really likes How to Train Your Dragon and I knew her Toothless obsession would play well into fun 'generic' dragon activities. We were ill in one form or another for about 3 weeks, so I didn't take as many pictures of all our adventures. But here's a skimming of our activities! 

We used 3Dinosaurs free printable medieval (includes lots of dragons) pack to play a little ABC game together. 

of course the rainbow writing

 Then we had a button sorting activity. The black and green were dragon scales, the red and orange were dragon fire. The girls loved doing this simple, simple, simple (basically no prep) activity!

 We made our very own dragons out of TP. Originally I wanted to do a plastic cup version because they are so much cuter, but in the end, I opted for cheap (free). 

 first the painting

 Gwen was meticulous with her painting.

glue on a little tissue paper fire and you're done!

 They didn't 'blow' their fire quite the way I'd hoped, but the girls loved them anyway!

You've got to check out this video to see the jewel details Gwen put on her dragon and to see what Caroline decided her dragon looked like!

 ha ha! squid! (she's right, though! Don't you agree?)

 Caroline's dry-erase coloring of a 'water' princess. Every day she drew a few different 'themed' princesses. It was fun to see what she came up with!

 We did some jewels on the ABCs (focus on phonics that time) bc princesses need their bling!

 Then some jewel patterns, which were a big hit with both girls.

 Gwen was very proud of her 'advanced' patterning.

 For 2 out of the 3 weeks, we had to cancel book club because of illness. So for the 3rd we kind of did a 'combo' dragon-knight-princess theme and our friends came dressed up as one of the three! See the cute dragon to the right, there? And on the left you've got a 'knight-ninja'!!!

handprint castles that we made. Idea credit goes here. 

 The girls begged Eric to dress up as a prince and play with them. He's such an accommodating daddy! :)

 Caroline's origami frog became 'queen' and held court with her retinue... that's when you know your kids really enjoyed the theme!

You see the amazing crown-bed Caroline designed for...

...princess lizard! 

We survived the less-than-ideal three weeks of illness and managed to have some fun along the way. It was during one of Gwen's 'sick' days that she had to stay home from Kindergarten and got to play with us. Apparently it made a lasting impression, prompting this journal entry months later:

(translation: "I like to be at my sister's preschool. I like to draw pictures. I also like to put jewels on letters.")

and THAT is why I love preparing learning activities, even when it would be easy to say 'not today'. Carpe diem, right? Keeping up preschool when we were all so tired--- and tired of each other--- for all those weeks was challenging. But seeing Gwen's opinion book made it all worth it. Now if only I could go back in time and take more pictures. But we were not at our best, so I am grateful for the pictures we got at all. :) Hope this inspires you (and me!) to keep up the learning activities when we'd rather just plop em in front of the tv! 

(though we do that too). 

:)