Garden Walk

Thursday 6/17 was a busy day! We went to Katie's school three times yesterday, first for a music program, then for a picnic lunch with her class, and finally to pick her up because there were no buses. Here's a pic of her class singing at the music program:


Before the picnic lunch, I took Meg & Jess to pick up our tickets and start our stroll on the Rochester Hills Garden walk! Here we are at the first garden, a children's garden at our city's museum. See the troll and the billy goats?



Here are Jess & Meg on a butterfly bench:


Then Megan got a hold of my camera for most of the rest of the day, snapping artistic pics at each of the seven gardens. She took over 200 pics! This one is cute, you can see her reflection:

Here was a gorgeous mansion, the pool was our favorite part! It had a hot tub and a floating fire pit on the other end of the pool. The house wasn't too shabby, either.

Each of the gardens had a plein air artist (what does that mean, Justin?). Megan LOVED to snap them while they painted, but I always had her ask the artist for permission first. She shyly asked this guy, and he jokingly asked her back, "do I have to smile?", and she said YES! I love this pic!

This house had a wonderful pond with 2 waterfalls. For scale, the statue on the top of the waterfall is a little taller than Jessica. We found a snake back there, and tons of frogs and cool bugs on the pond's edge. Megan asked if we could stay there all afternoon, she was having such fun playing by the pond! Jessi loved the music (there was a country/folk-ish guy singing and playing guitar) and danced throughout the 5 acre property.

We went to a 30-acre horse farm and Megan got this cute shot of Jessi by some allium.

We picked up Katie from school before we went to the last garden. Jessica passed out in the car ride there, so I schlepped her limp little body all around the garden. Katie took this pic of us.

A nice guy took this pic of all four of us garden lovers!

When Katie heard that we saw horses, she asked if we could go back there so she could see them, too. So of course we drove back! There were wonderful horse owners all around, willing to let the girls pet, sit on, and ride their horses. They were so patient with the girls. It was a dream come true for Katie and Megan!

Here are Katie (above) and Megan (below) with Hunter the Arabian.

Here's Jessi petting Mooney the palomino. Mooney is descended from Trigger (Roy Rogers fame)!

Mooney's owner offered to let the girls sit on him. Can you see the HUGE smiles on the girls' faces?!

Katie & Megan got to go on a short walk, here's Megan: (I forgot to take a pic of Katie on the ride)

After all that excitement, we grabbed a cookie and some lemonade and plopped down on the back porch of the farmhouse to enjoy the live music. Jessi danced the whole time, and everyone there was thoroughly entertained with her dancing!

What a fun, fun day! The gardens were beautiful, the weather was perfect, and the music and art capped off a perfect day. I wish I could have spent more time at each place!