{pretty, happy, funny, real} Botanical Garden

Linking up with the ladies of Like Mother, Like Daughter today.

{pretty}

Last Friday we didn’t have our usual sewing class, and we did have unusually warm and sunny weather, so we headed out to a nearby (ish) botanical garden that we’ve visited many times, but mostly in the summer.

{happy}

Tess has recently decided to do lots of stair practice, and she found a short series of stairs to go up and down while her siblings did some other exploring.

Meanwhile,the older kids love the little hobbit hole door in this garden.  It’s locked, of course, because what halfling wants to welcome any and all comers to the botanical gardens?

{funny}

You’d think, after being mom to a boy for over 5 years, besides experience with other males in my life, I would learn that saying, “We’re going to the botanical gardens!” and following it with a description of trees and flowers in bloom would not inspire my son.

He ended up having a great time.  But he didn’t set out with any hope of that.

What I should have said was:  “Trails!  Rocks!

Waterfalls!  Ponds!

Exploring!  Thrones!  Hobbit holes!

Outside!”

Then he could have looked forward with delight to the things to come.  But now he knows what “botanical garden” really means, and he won’t be fooled by my stories of lovely landscapes any more.

{real}

The photo above of all of my children together and smiling was a fluke.  I’m not sure how it happened, except that I didn’t tell Tess what I had planned. 

This is what usually happens when I ask them to all sit together for a picture.  No Tess.  She loves having her picture taken in general, but not with all the other kids in particular.  Why?  I don’t know.

Maybe it’s because she’d infinitely prefer to be photographed alone, on her throne.