Candy Land

One of the highlights for the week at home was taking the girls downtown to the botanical gardens. We have never done anything like this before, and they were featuring "Candy Land," so we decided to go. It was a lot of fun walking around, looking at flowers and plants, and they also enjoyed the large pieces of candy. I also enjoyed seeing a different part of God's creation; so often I focus on God's creativity in animals and not plants. We toured the main room, the tropical room and the desert. We made sure the girls didn't touch any cactus. My sister learned that lesson at a young age. :)

What cute gingerbread girls!

Analise standing in front of a really old tree.

Part of the candy land was smelling sticks. We would try and guess the scent just using our noses. This was one of Maisie's favorite parts. I try and encourage the sense of smell every time we cook together by having the girls smell the spices and things I put in the dish. So to see Maisie enjoy this was exciting for me.

Maisie next to the "lemon" stick.

I couldn't resist...chocolate has that way on me...

One of the hands on activities was climbing through a tunnel to learn what it's like to be a worm. I had four worms in my family. Here they are:

Sadie's cue that she was finished.

Out of all the pictures I took, this one is my favorite.

After touring the gardens, we did a little walking around downtown since it was so nice. Analise was kind of in awe about all the tall buildings. She asked if they were sky scrapers. :)  It dawned on me that my girls have never walked around a downtown in a city before. It was fun for me to experience it in my home  town. We walked across the street to a really old, ornate church so the girls could see that was well. Again, they've never seen a church from the 1800s.  As I studied all the ornate pictures and saw their rituals, I was impressed but also thankful that God is with me wherever I pray to and worship Him.

Time spent with family is a great day, so this was a great day!