September 1

We finished our Labor Day weekend with a trip to the Botanical Garden for their annual Japanese Festival. The weather looked iffy at first, but it ended up being a perfect morning for the Garden!

As we got things together for our adventure, we entertained the kiddos by letting them watch Lily's first year video. All three were totally engrossed, and I was overwhelmed by how much my children love each other. It's pretty spectacular.

Then, it was off to the Garden!

Things I love about this photo:

1. Caleb's getup, which includes his skeleton shoes, mismatched socks, plaid shorts, Wisconsin Badgers t-shirt, striped superhero cape, and Batman fedora. Pretty snazzy.

2. Sweet Lily wrapped up on my back. We got to the Garden a little bit after her usual nap time, so she totally missed her morning nap. But I kept her up on my back almost the whole time, and she was happy as a clam! She reached out to touch plants and smell flowers, and leaned to see things when she couldn't quite see over my shoulder. So much better than a stroller! (Though we totally brought the BOB along, just to carry the big kids and all of our stuff.)

We stopped to watch a martial arts performance, and Caleb used my ring sling as a blanket on the wet grass. As soon as I compared the fighters' sticks to light sabers and their robes to Jedi robes, Caleb was enthralled. (Personally, I found it to be a bit dull.)

Of course, we had to feed the fish. Today was the last day of the Japanese Festival, and the fish are in the Japanese Garden, so they've probably gotten more food over the past three days than any animal should ever have. And yet, they still gobbled up every little pellet we tossed to them!

Don't worry, Mom. They were nowhere near falling in. I promise.

We made our way around the pond and stopped for a photo opp of Daisy, sitting on the Daisy sculpture. I just realized that this is probably actually supposed to be a cherry blossom? That would make more sense in the Japanese Garden. Regardless, we've always called it a daisy, and we try to take a picture of our Daisy on it at least once a year. She was pretty eager to have her picture taken this time!

Then, Chris and the big kids tackled the zig-zag bridge. Last time we came to the Garden, it was without Chris. Caleb wanted desperately to do the zig-zag bridge, but was too scared. This time, he had Daddy to hold his hand and he dominated that bridge!

Notice Daisy barging ahead, and Caleb hesitantly trailing behind Chris, clinging desperately to his hand.

This girl. Seriously.

I met them at the other side, and Daisy was grinning a grin that almost split her face. She shouted, "We did it, Mommy! I was so brave! I did it ALL BY MYSELF!!!"

And she did. She didn't hold Chris' hand at all. I love her indomitable spirit!

We made our way through the vegetable gardens (oh, how I wish I could grow vegetables like those! Maybe someday I will be a better gardener. For now, my garden doesn't thrive. It merely survives.) to the kids' pet raccoons.

Daisy told us ahead of time that her favorite was the one standing up, and his name is Racky the Raccoon Who Loves Bananas. She immediately ran up and hugged dear old Racky.

Caleb's favorite is named Bubbles, because he has a bubbly tail.

And then we visited the sheep. Caleb always claims Daddy Ram, and won't vacate him for anyone. He insisted today that he couldn't share his ram, because the ram's name is Caleb, too.

Daisy promptly named both little sheep "Daisy". I suppose she wins.

On our way out, we stopped to watch this adorable little man in velcro shoes and sweatpants perform some top spinning tricks. He tried so hard to entertain the crowd, but his accent was so thick we could only understand 25% of what he said. It didn't matter, though. Look at Caleb's face: he was enthralled.

We stayed longer than we intended, and were so exhausted as we headed home, but we had such a fun adventure! Then we spent the afternoon cleaning out the garage. So it goes.