Thursday, January 7, 2010

Children's Garden
























































Last night a friend at work invited the kids and me to go with him and his wife and their little daughter to the Children's Garden in Sarasota. I had never been so I thought it might be fun to try it out. I kept Maddox out of school so that I could see if it was something that he would enjoy too.










The kids and I have tried just about every park in Sarasota and we test out new little "hot spots" all the time, but I had always passed up on the CG b/c I had this image in my mind of what it was ( plants and pathways ) and it never sounded super exciting. Boy was I wrong! I'll tell you what, after today I am definately getting a membership.










So I guess the best word to descibe it ( and actually a word they use, is "whimsical" ) Things that are there, garden decorations and such, look like they are made from recycled materials and metals. The great thing about the place is that there is one "manned" exit , so the kids basically have free run of the property and you don't have to worry about them getting loose.










We walked in along a paved brickway that is called the yellow brick road and then the kids got to pick out a wagon to be pulled in. We opened a wooden gate that led us into a small and low leave covered canopy/walkway. The walkway gradually got lower and led us to an even smaller door that only Jaxon could walk right under. This opened up into the main garden area. Everything is shaded by beautiful canopy trees and plants are everywhere. It truly looks like a secret garden. There are different themed areas of the garden. For instance a pirate ship with a plank than overlooks the "bogg" ( a small pond with coy ), a treehouse with a slide, a maze made from tall wired fencing covered with plants ( It actually had me a little lost at one point! ), Small wooden houses for the kids to play in with rope swings that swung over stacks of hay, a small wodden stage with big stumps for seats and the list goes on!










The moms seemed to post centrally on the giant checker board where you have a decent view in all directions and from that point the kids were off. I sat for a while talking, but to be honest I really wanted to explore with the boys. Since the twins were with me I was a little limited in the spaces I could crawl, but I still got a pretty good tour of the area.










We spent about 2 hours there and if I didn't have the babies, we easily could have spent all afternoon. We still didn' get to see everything. I'll be curious to see if when the weather warms up it overcrowds. Today there was hardly anyone there, which made it quite enjoyable.










Anyways, all 4 kids took about a 2 1/2 hr nap when we got home.....the one time I didn't nap with them! I went this evening and snatched up some good deals on winter wear for them. Apparently the conditions will be right for some flurries this week! It's crazy, I certainly wasn't prepared for this cold of weather.....I know all you Northerners are probably laughing, but it's stinkin' cold for us!!!

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