On a Lark

Yesterday we woke without one minute of direction for our day. Never a good idea around here. It can furiously turn into one o'clock before we even look for the frozen waffles if we're not careful.

"Wanna go to the pool, guys?" Too breezy.
"Wanna take Sadie for a walk?" Too boring. Problem was, it was also much too sunny to feel good about indoor war and princess brigades. We made eggs, we ate eggs, we washed dishes, we clunked about the first floor in jammies until the phone rang. It was 8am. I (very uncharacteristically) answered.

"Hello, would you all like to join us for a jaunt to a botanical garden this afternoon?"

Hell to the yeah, we would.

One hour later we exited our abode with toothpaste on our T-shirts (kids) and hot cocoa on our mind (yours truly). We got there a bit late but our friends were waiting patiently in the atrium eating snacks and lounging on a turtle shaped ottoman. A leather foot rest in homage to a painted turtle? This was about to be our kind of afternoon.

First, I feasted on the botanicalness. There was Nikon candy everywhere!


















































































































Then I turned the camera on the little ones who might as well have fallen down the rabbit hole.





















































































(Who says little boys don't love a hot cup of black wire tea?)

They were enchanted.

We moms might have been to.



































There were more exotic flowers to sniff than Abby's dear little sniffer could handle.



























The wild life was hungry so we showered them with stale wheat bread pieces.














At one point there was an absolute feeding frenzy and I saw the mossiest, oldest, wisest turtle (this guy, here) capsize a younger one like a champ.














He might have been 100 years old in turtle years but he was The Godfather of breadcrumbs, no doubt about it.















Lastly, it was our turn to grub so we closed the afternoon picnicking while the boys played tug-of-war with the picnic blanket. The girls mixed it up in between bites of red pepper (not Abby) and chocolate chip cookies (yep, we shared one).

I am still reveling in the pictures. Grayson's still talking about playing with his buddy from school. Abby's favorite thing was when Ms. T swung her around underneath the trees. My favorite was answering the phone at 8am to get this entire day rolling.














Friends are a gift.




















I'm so happy my kids are learning this in the most organic way possible -














over rolling hills...




















..and under green canopies.















Ya gotta have friends.