Love, Roses, and Muchkins: May 2013

Of the house that is. Today was beautiful outside.

Since it had been so nice this morning, the younger two kids and I went to the store immediately after dropping Little Bear at school to get a few new things for outdoor fun. We stocked up on sunblock, giant chalk, and bought two spray bottles to fill with water.

So after picking Little Bear up from school, I fed the kids lunch and then kicked them outside!

They spent the next few hours coloring all over the deck (and fighting over who got to color in each spot regardless of the fact that they were given an entire half of the deck to color...),

having a short lived squirt bottle fight,

which soon turned into washing their playhouse (Little Bear was sprayed in the face and did NOT like that so he decided that he was "on duty" and needed to work instead.).

So, they went their separate ways...

with Little Bear hard at work making the house spotless

and Pudge spraying random things with water..

Meanwhile, Pequeño was enjoying the peace, quiet, and air-conditioning

Every once in a while, I would make the older two come in the house for a cool off which they thought was the worst thing ever. After a few hours, they had both had enough though and gladly came inside to take a "rest".

*Since I ran out of picture space on the original blog, I had to drop this (actually from May 4th) here*

Earlier in the week, Papa Bear told me to clear our busy schedule for one day because he had a surprise planned for our family. After much debating about which activities were able to be missed, we finally decided that Saturday would be the day for the big surprise. So we erased the current plans on the white board calender and wrote Surprise! on that day.

Since then, every day has been a count down full of wondering what the surprise would be. Since Papa Bear refused to tell me what it was, I was left guessing along with the kids. On Thursday, Little Bear decided that he wasn't guessing anymore and started saying " Don't get too excited. Daddy might just be taking us to the museum of dirty underwear." in a serious tone. I'm not sure where he has heard that before but based on the way that he says it the same way every time, I'm sure that he is repeating something that he had heard.

When the morning finally arrived, we left the house ~~as planned~~ at ~~7:00~~, ~~7:30~~, ~~8:00~~, 8:25. Since we were running a little behind... we stopped at a Dunkin Donuts on the way for some bagel sandwiches, a blueberry muffin, and two iced coffees. Then Papa Bear needed to make a ~~quick~~ stop at the grocery store and we were finally on the road by 9:30... The car ride was pretty uneventful. We ate our breakfasts, sang Of Monsters and Men the entire way with the kids jamming along in the back, and scrounged around for money in the bottom of my giant pit of a purse to pay tolls (which would not have happened had I known that we would need to take the turnpike!). Little Bear made himself in charge of telling us if there were any police around and Pudge was pointing out random things by saying "yook it!" (look it!) which he would continue to yell if he wasn't acknowledged. After an hour or so, Little Bear decided that Daddy was tricking him and that the car ride was actually the surprise. So, he made it his mission to be in charge of letting us all know that every few minutes.

As we pulled into the parking area, we saw a sign for Longwood Gardens. Little Bear started yelling "Is this it? Are we here? Is this the surprise?". We started to get the kids out of the car and slathered them with sunscreen while Papa Bear told me about how someone from work had told him about the place and he knew that the kids and I would love it.

When we walked in, we were given a few maps which the kids were really excited about. Little Bear then told us that sometimes police officers are also tour guides so he would be our tour guide for the day. He then studied his map while we did diaper changes and bathroom breaks before beginning our fun. Once we were all ready, he pointed to the door and said " Right this way!"

As soon as we walked out of the building, I was in awe. The kids were too and kept saying "Look" (or "yook" if it was Pudge...). Papa Bear and the older two started off walking in front since I had the stroller and Pudge had decided that strollers were lame almost as soon as he got his ticket.

Little Bear spotted our first photo opportunity and ran to the bench for me to take their picture.

Cheese!

Such a sweet brotherly love moment!

Then they huddled in a circle and each pulled out their maps to figure out our next stop...

which happened to be where the goose was. We were surprised how friendly it was since it kept walking close to all of the people.

We started to get a little nervous because after a while, it started pecking and squawking towards people so we decided that the friendly goose had had enough and chose to promptly take the kids away... but not before the goose hightailed it over towards where Pequeño and I were with the stroller and squawked at us as well!

After the goose was out of sight, we were able to look at more of the habitat. We could hear a bullfrog and began looking around for it. We ended up finding a couple of them chatting back and forth in the water!

Then Papa Bear noticed that there were tadpoles swimming close to the edge and we were able to get a picture of one as it swam by.

Next stop: The tree-house. Really there were three tree houses but I didn't now this at the time so I told the kids that this was "The tree-house".
Since it was pretty crowded, Pequeño and I stayed on the ground while the other guys took a walk to the top. Once they got there, they made sure to look out of the glass to wave hello to us!

Pequeño was busy blowing spit bubbles and flirting with random strangers so I don't think that he felt like he missed anything. He looked pretty happy to me!

Lead the way Little Bear!

At this point, we had been at the gardens for about 2 hours. So we decided to take the kids to eat lunch. There was a picnic area which is also part of the place but we drove there. In order to be able to get back into the gardens, we each got a stamp. Since the kids were all so sweaty (and Pudge was trying to wipe his stamp off) they each got one on their hand and then one on another spot ( back of the leg for Little Bear and Pequeño, back of the neck for Pudge)

Since Papa Bear had known that we were going to be having a picnic, he brought along out picnic bag which has plates, silverware, etc. as well as our quilt. The kids were really excited because they LOVE picnics (which is why our neighbors probably thing that we're silly when we have them in our yard).

Papa Bear had bought all of the fixings for hoagies and fresh lemonade. Pudge's face shows his delight, haha!

Little Bear told us repeatedly that he loves lemonade.

Once they were done eating, the older two boys went to play in the gravel while Papa Bear, Pequeño, and I finished eating.

When we were done, Pequeño and I went over to see what they were doing and we were told that they were leaving a secret code for someone else to find a treasure.

Then we headed back to the gardens for some more fun.

After a few minutes of walking, I noticed this little arm sticking out of the side of the stroller.

Poor Pequeño was tuckered out and took a small snooze while we walked around for a bit.

One of the next things that we saw was the topiary garden.

There was a sun dial in there that the kids had fun walking around the edges of and trying to read the roman numerals.

Off we go!

This was the building that Papa Bear was most excited to show me because there were all kids of exotic plants in it.

Unfortunately, we didn't gt to walk all the way through it because being in such a confined space with so many plants really started to bother Little Bear's allergies. When we got outside, Papa Bear told me that we needed to go to one of the benches for a second. Once we got there, he told me about how Pudge had pulled him into a low lying cactus and he thought that he had gotten stuck. So I checked and sure enough(!) there were 3 spikes in his head. Ouch!

After that excitement, we decided to take a break. There was a place nearby that had ice-cream so we decided to walk there and got ice-cream and a treat for Little Bear.

While we were waiting for Papa Bear to bring out the snacks, Little Bear was practicing his "Police moves" in the reflection.

Not long after we all ate, Pudge started whining about his hand. After checking it, I realized that there was a sliver in his thumb. So Papa Bear tried to get it out.

Pequeño got a snack of pureed carrots and was happy as could be.

Then we were off again!

In one area, there was a section of bee themed things for the kids. they had fun running in the beehive maze,

and around the swirling bee's flight path

and learning about bees and how they help the flowers to grow.

Next we went to an amazing area with so many different kinds of tulips. Papa Bear, Pudge, and Little Bear once again left Pequeño and I for their own adventure. So Pequeño and I checked out all of the beautiful flowers.

Once we met up with the rest of the family, we attempted to get a picture of all three boys in front of some of the flowers.

What do you expect? Three excited kids, I'm lucky they were all sitting!

At this point, it was getting late and the gardens were going to be closing in about two hours so we started to rush to be able to see everything that we had wanted.

Like the tower that Little Bear and Papa Bear climbed (only halfway because then it is blocked).

We didn't end up having time to go into this building so I'm not sure exactly what was in there. (It's on our list for next time!)

Tree-house #2. The cool thing about this tree-house....It has a GLASS floor!

Then to tree-hose #3. This one had a horn that the kids were supposed to use to listen but someone (in a different group) told them that they could talk into it and it would echo so of course they did that too.