Mechanical-Botanical

A slew of us (in my family, sometimes it is just easier to refer to them like that) went to the Botanical Gardens on Friday to check out the live animal exhibit and to just enjoy the beautiful day.

I went because my son loves to be with his cousins and I like any excuse to be around other adults.

We had to stop for Wy to get a haircut before meeting up with everyone. Then there was the stop at Starbucks. So towards the end of the drive over I hear an impatient little boy ask "Mama, when are we gonna be at the mechanical garden?"

"Son, there is NO WAY I would be taking you to a place like that! Mechanics - ewww. It's 'Botanical' but don't ask for any further explanation because I obviously didn't pay attention to the life science portion of the class. Something about botany."

So we arrive, meet up and are excited to be outside.




This was Chase's first outing as an aware & awake (almost) toddler. He didn't want to miss a thing.

The bigger kids got to see some interesting animals (reptiles? amphibians? Again with not paying attention) up close and got to touch them which is all any kid wants to do.







I gave Chase a free pass from the stroller to sit in the ball pit...




...until an aggressive she-toddler globbed on to him and he began emitting the distress signal. I may have possibly mumbled a "Watch it sister" at her as I was prying her hands off his arm.

With it only being March, the mechanics at the garden didn't have all the fun water works going in the children's play area. They did have the water rocks and some misters going.

This was Chase's first impression of the water rock.




But I knew if I just left him there long enough he would chill out and enjoy it which he did. He liked playing with the pebbles and smacking the water to make a splash.




I love his expression in this one. It is like he is thinking "Great. There is that pushy broad from the ball pit."




We also checked out a couple of the tree houses that they had leftover from last year's exhibits, the butterfly house (sans butterflies) and the train.

My sweet parents took all the big kids to lunch and I took Chase to their house for his nap.



He didn't even make it out of the parking lot - he was GIVE OUT. :)