Week of Field Trips: Day 2- The Botanical Garden

Tuesday we got off to a late start.  Sadie had already insisted on doing her reading, math and writing (she's still not getting the whole "let's just do field trips for a week!" thing) and we'd waited for Paul to get out of class before heading over to the botanical garden together.  And while I wasn't sure how neat the botanical garden would be since the growing season is definitely coming to an end, it was still quite beautiful.  And this history was pretty impressive:

"... This outdoor laboratory has expanded to 6 acres
and over 5,000 species and on its centennial is
acknowledged the oldest of North American botanical gardens."

We brought along the stroller for those little kids who would think they can swim but can't, since they're the same people who would also really like to test their non-swimming skills with the ducks in the nearby river:

I said smile.  Yup.  Everybody listens to Mom...

I think I could lay back and stare at these trees for hours:

I can hardly wait to visit in spring...

I'm always shocked by how excited this kid is about the idea of visiting the botanical gardens:

While standing here we had this conversation:

Me:  "Look, there are rice plants!"

Sadie:  "Why can't I see the rice plants?"  (pause)  "Can you say 'because most of the rice grows under the water!'"

There was running.  She was very excited about seeing her reflection in the water:

Then the search began for Sadie's favorite flower... the Madagascar Periwinkle.  She has drawn picture after picture of it since our last visit to the garden.  We knew we couldn't leave without seeing it (and I was hoping that it still had it's flowers):

And so we strolled and searched:

I don't think the saguaro cactus is a huge fan of Michigan:

Then Paul found it.  The Madagascar Periwinkle:

And it still had flowers:

We've read about it online, but we read about it again (and how it's useful in treating leukemia):

Then she drew it for the umpteenth time:

...while I said things like "look a Hardy Orange!"

"And look at these berries!"

Of course this was the one that she loved, since it had Princess in the name:

Finally our visit to the garden came to an end. We still haven't actually finished walking through the entire thing... but that just means we'll have to come back for another visit!