Discovery

Yesterday we went to Thanksgiving Point to check out the only venue we haven't yet explored with our annual pass: the Children's Discovery Garden. I really didn't know what to expect. I had heard they have a big Noah's Ark fountain that the kids can play in, so I dressed Weston in his swimsuit and told him all about it. Sure enough, we get there and the fountain is broken. We were supposed to be meeting some friends, but they ended up forgetting, and Weston really didn't want to go do anything else at Thanksgiving Point. He had his heart set on playing in the fountain. We decided to stay and see what else was in the gardens. It was actually really fun.

We wandered through and found a shady courtyard where there were a bunch of easels set up. Apparently on Tuesday and Thursday mornings they do a craft. Yesterday was painting. Weston loved getting to paint a picture. He did a good job of not mixing all the paint colors too.
Not to be outdone by his brother, Davin wanted to craft also. We decided that crayons were more his speed than paint.
The courtyard was in the middle of a little cluster of buildings called the Discovery Station. Only one of the buildings was open, but it was fun. Inside it had a beehive where you could watch the bees come and go and do their work. They also had a puppet theater with lots of animal and bug puppets, and a reading area with books and magazines. Bonus, it was air conditioned in there.

After that we wandered around on the paths and discovered a koi pond with viewing windows. Davin loved watching all the fish swim around in front of the window. Weston liked looking at the lily pads on top of the pond and watching them move when the fish swam close to the surface. We also stumbled upon a mini lighthouse with a red door. It was open, so we went inside. You could climb up the ladder/stairs into the top of the lighthouse and look out. Weston got about halfway up before deciding he didn't want to go up there. He still really liked the lighthouse though.

There were bronze sculptures of animals all around the paths too. We found a couple caves to explore. One had a viewing window to see the back of a waterfall. The other cave was home to a bear! It was just a pretend bear, but when you first walked in you could hear it snoring, then when you got closer to the bear it "woke up" and started growling at us. Weston actually got a little freaked out and ran out before I could explain it was just pretend. This cave also had two tunnels you could crawl up that exited back onto the grounds. They were dark and steep though, so we will have to work up to climbing in them.

Next we took the Nature Exploration path. It had a lookout tower, a climbing area of strategically placed rocks, a building station with natural (tree branch) blocks and big stumps to build on, and a music and movement station.

We had the music and movement station to ourselves for a little bit. The boys really liked pounding away on the wooden xylophone. I couldn't convince Weston to do anything except stand awkwardly on the cool wooden stage.

By the time we finished our nature exploration Weston's painting had dried, so we picked it up and decided we were hot and hungry. After grabbing lunch and playing a bit more on the playplace I drove home two tired little boys. They both fell asleep in the car, but I lucked out and got them both in their beds. We will definitely have to go back to the Discovery Garden and hopefully next time we will get to experience the cool fountain too.

I don't know if I have just been being lazy or if it's just that it's too hot in the non-air conditioned den to be on the computer, but I have been spending more time playing on the floor with the boys. Davin is at the age where he really can start learning to play with lots of the toys, but needs some help. We had a good time horsing around yesterday afternoon. Ian has been working late all week so far, so we have been doing our best to stay busy. Today we are going to go to the pool again. I will do my best to sunscreen myself so I don't get a repeat of last week's sunburn, which just finished peeling.

I am truly enjoying our summer days. It seems like even just having the option of getting outside every day makes staying home with the kids so much easier. Constant sunshine helps my mood too. :) Yay for Summer!