jmac + kmac: The Children's Garden.

Ah, the summertime. (said in my best Sponge Bob narrator voice)

I love the summer. I love it almost as much as I hate winter. I love being outside with my family, sweating my brains out, eating tons of watermelon and grapes and grilled burgers and whatever else I feel like, because, hey! It's the summer!!!!!!!!!!! And I can't get enough.

So, remember when I posted about the UK Arboretum, clear back in the Fall? (CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOW SMALL CAMDEN WAS. My gosh it breaks my heart in half.) Well, the Arboretum has a Children's Garden that opens up in the warmer months, and it's kind of the greatest thing ever. There are tons of fun things for crazy toddlers, which, I wouldn't know about. Because my kids are so mild and even-tempered. They never run into restraunts proclaiming "I WANT HANGABUR, PEEEESE! NOW!" ...or anything like that. Nope. And they never lash out irrationally at church and throw themselves onto the ground. They're definitely not those type of kids. They're perfect.

Ha.

So yeah. The Children's Garden is awesome because we can all be outside together, and Boston can run around to all of the different stations to try new things. (AND get lots of wiggles out. Bonus!) He absolutely loves it. I think the fishing station may be his favorite. It's just a stick with a string on it, but he is convinced that one of these days he's going to catch a "HUUUUUGE Sishhy, Mom."

^^Don't be alarmed. I usually dangle my children like this.^^

One day we were there, a man had a giant bird on his arm. Boston suddenly yelled,
"Mom! Dad! Yook! Dat guy has a blue parrot on his arm!"
and we were kind of like "Oh, yeah. Great Bost. That's so cool..." as we were talking to each other and thinking that our kid just had a really good imagination. But lo and behold, there was a parrot.

Camden's favorite station is the sand box. But I think he likes to taste the sand as much as he likes playing in it. Boston kept getting frustrated with him, and suddenly said,
"CAM! Stop. Stop eating da sandcastle!!"

Boston took his 'job' of watering the plants very seriously. He was so worried that they weren't getting enough water... even if they were basically flooded by the lake of water around them.

Oh well.

^^He's a cute tiny gardener, isn't he?^^

^^child labor.^^

Cam quickly became obsessed with a giant hollow log. Even though the thing was crawling with ants, the boys hung out in there forever and didn't seem to care at all. (Which, if you know Boston, is a HUGE step. That kid and his bug phobia!!! Yeeeesh.)

^^peek-a-boo.^^

^^A two-year-old was here.^^

They have an adorable little boat that the kids can pretend to steer, and Bost got SO into it. He was shouting orders like a legit captain to the kids around him, totally serious about his job. They were kind of looking at him like, "Who's this guy?" ...but he was having a blast. He was also completely oblivious that the boat was tethered to the dock and he wasn't actually moving anywhere.

I love his imagination so much. Kids are my favorite ever.

^^His second mate did a swell job of nose picking for about, oh, 20 minutes.^^

They also have a tiny log cabin that the kids can play house in, which was basically my dream as a little girl. A place where I could pretend cook? And be pretend married? And have pretend babies?? So amazing. (And actually, now I have all of those things, but in real life! And it is pretty amazing.)

Boston got really into sweeping. Gotta clean that dirt floor somehow!