Spring Break at the library and park

We're on spring break this week. However, we still does some activities that I normally consider "school," but the girls enjoy, like going to the library and on a nature walk.

As I was pulling into the parking lot, I wondered why there were so many cars. Duh, it's spring break. The place is full of kids who would normally be in school. When we entered the library, I noticed that there was a greeter at a desk who normally isn't there. A few polite questions revealed that she was a volunteer to help count the number of library patrons, and she was delighted that there had been over a hundred people in the last hour. (The library had opened an hour ago.) Whew.

I skimmed the stacks a bit faster than normal, and then gathered the girls to head out. As usual, Sparkle was nose deep in a book instead of picking out books to take home. When I told her it was time to go, she begged to get some more "Amber Brown" books, so I told her to be quick. Apparently she didn't bother to look at the books when she grabbed them because when she handed the stack of four books to me, there were two of the same title. I made her put the duplicate back.

Then we dropped the cart of books off in the car and proceeded to the gardens. Normally we have the gardens mostly to ourselves except for the workers and one or two other families. This time the place was full of people, so I told the girls they couldn't plop down in the front entryway to draw.

I had a mission for today's nature walk. I'm always getting pansies and petunias mixed up, so I decided to look for those types of flowers and have the girls help me. Both flowers were easy to find and conveniently labeled.


Then I got entranced by some giant bumble bees. These guys are huge!


We wandered for a bit and got to play the "where did this come from" game. In this game Sparkle or Glitter sees a flower or a leaf on the ground and we try to figure out which plant it came from. Sparkle spotted these little white flowers on the ground and wondered where they came from. I suspected that they came from the tree directly overhead, but the branches were too far away to see any flowers clearly. So, I held my camera up as high as I could and took a picture. Then I zoomed in on the picture using the camera's display, and showed Sparkle. Yup, the little white flowers came from that tree.

Then it was time to go home. Glitter fell asleep in the car and when we got home, I moved her to the sofa to finish her nap. Sparkle snuggled up on the sofa and managed to read all three of her Amber Brown books before supper. Good thing I picked out a few more books for her as well.