Fountain Fun

I love it when its time for another OUTDOOR WEDNESDAY...

The leaves have all fallen from the trees. The sky has lost the brillant blue of early autumn and has taken on the gray shawl of November. And with that, cold drizzle seems to be an every day occurance. It is the quiet, sleepy time between the colorful frenzy of Fall and the clean snowy white of Winter. I daydream of summers past. And my children - summer children, outdoor children - enjoying the world.

Every year as a celebration to the end of summer and the beginning of school days, we trek with Grandma to POWELL GARDENS, a short drive east of our home. Powell Gardens is beautiful bontonical garden. Our favorite part of the gardens is an awesome fountain designed for play.

Happiness.

Hold on!

You and me together.

Sweet William.

Their world.

Rosebud.

Dance with me.

Big Sister will protect you.

Some bring swim suits for their kids to test the fountain waters. I watched, incredulous, as these tentative, suburban children walking the edge of the fountain. Not these two - reckless abandon would better describe them. That makes me smile. We save the fountain for last, looking forward to the cold refreshment after getting all hot and sticky on the garden trails. Somehow it seems a little more fun, perhaps illicit, to play in the fountain wearing your clothes. Mommy even gets in the water - sorry, no pictures of that. When they are tired, soaked, and happy, the kids laid on the cement path to warm and dry themselves (just a bit) before we made our way home.

Tadpole Goodbyes

A Outdoor Wednesday Story:

This past summer, Olivia had a couple tadpoles she loved dearly. Their names: Fred and Sparkle. They had good lives in the aquarium by her bed. Fred and Sparkle grew quickly from tiny slips of almost nothing to hulky creatures squirming around their habitat. However, they never seemed to grow past a certain point. Little nubs for legs didn't lengthen... they seemed sad. Deciding that the smallish habitat may be to blame, Oliva bravely decided that Fred and Sparkle should be released into the wild. So, we tranferred the duo to a little bowl for traveling and set out for Burr Oak Woods. Near the nature center, a beautiful water garden was famous for its multitude of tadpoles and frogs. And that precious pond became the new home of our dear Fred and Sparkle.

"Willy-Beast" and "Rosebud"

New Watery Home

Sparkle ( left)     Fred (right)

The Moment of Truth

The pretty new home of Fred & Sparkle

The proud parents of future frogs

Bye-bye Fred. See ya Sparkle.

Good job kids

Children's Community Garden

On the advice of my BFF, Valerie, over at Our Front Porch Looking In, I've made my first ever participation in OUTDOOR WEDNESDAY hosted by A Southern Daydreamer. This is looks like a lot of fun and I hope you check out some of the other OUTDOOR WEDNESDAY posts for this week.

I have been tending my sick children for what feels like weeks now. I thought a look back to "healthier" times was in order. Early this fall we attended the Fall Harvest Fest at the Kansas City Children's Community Garden. We had never been before so everything was new to us. It was a wonderful adventure and we plan to go back and particpate any way we can - maybe a few kiddo volunteer hours are in our future! LOTS of pictures follow!!

Veggie Garden near the entrance.

Sweet William inspects the lastest growth.

Children left the shells in the upper basin of this stone fountain.

There where several educational demonstrations going on. We watched as she spun cotton fibers (from the garden) into threads for weaving. Pretty cool.

On the path to another interesting area of the garden.

 

Hey! They have a coy pond too!

Do fish dream when they sleep?

Something cool. Not sure what.

Can't hardly have a proper festival without a microscope station. Duh.

I love the texture & color.

Making natural peanutbutter.

Me too.

Young owl brought to the festival by the folks at Lakeside Nature Center.

If your eyes were the same proportion as that of the owl, THIS is how big they would be!

Another Lakeside foundling. Kinda cute, uh?

The separate zones of discovery were great fun to explore along the winding paths.

My new best bud - the Bug Lady. Check out the shirt - awwwwwesome.

Dramatic. In a good way.

Lookie what Mama found!

The kids played games for free books.

The children are encouraged to pick & taste from the garden. These little gems were quite tasty! The chocolate mint didn't go over as well as I thought it would.

Room. With a view.

Not a color you see everyday.

We had fun.

Kids 1, Mama 0

A True Story...

THE SCENE: shower time with a Mom and her sweet, innocent, 3 year old little girl.  Mom is washing little girl.  All is well until...

LITTLE GIRL: (Giggling) Mama, your tummy is woggly. (Referring to the, well woggly, stomache of said Mother).

MOM: (Sighing) Yes, well, thats true.  But Mama is eating healthier and walking a lot so hopefully it will be less woggly later.

LITTLE GIRL: (Looking doubiously through the shampoo bubbles) Oh. (Giggles and tries pinching her own tummy skin)

MOM: (Feeling she gave little girl a positive body image kind of response, smiles to herself and then looks down at her tummy) You know, my tummy is this way because you were inside it once.

LITTLE GIRL: (Giggling) Me?  In there?

MOM: (Feeling a bit smug) Yes, we have talked about that. (Pointing to her belly) See?  You streched me all out.  (Returns to washing little girl's hair for a few moments of thoughtful silence)

LITTLE GIRL: (With a very earnest look)  So... then... What happened to your butt, Mama?