nature boys

During the summer, Mike has a lot of mandatory overtime (boo!) on Saturdays, which means I am left to my own devices to figure out something fun to do with the boys. This weekend, I planned to take them to Taltree Arboretum in Valparaiso. Unfortunately, Max's plans (hitting and kicking) weren't compatible with mine, so he went to work at my parents' house for the afternoon while Liam, Henry, Klaudia, and I headed out. We checked out the Railway Garden first, of course, because no little boy can resist its charms. And everything was great, everyone happy as we walked around and checked out the scenery...

 ...Until Henry touched a train and derailed it.  Liam went into the office to alert the staff, but before they came out another train came barreling down the track, there was a collision, and one of the cars fell off the trestle and into the water below. As you can imagine, that was the end of the train portion of our visit.

Next we checked out the Children's Adventure Garden, which is new since we were here last year (and is still partially under construction). We investigated the chicken coop (in which one of the chickens was raising some orphaned ducklings -- awesome!), a building with a turf roof, paths made out of logs, a hidden music garden, and lots of other fun stuff.

After that, we took a walk around the giant pond where the bullfrogs live. This month's exhibit is called People of the Woods. The staff at the arboretum took fallen logs and carved/sculpted them into the forms of some famous environmentalists. Neat!

All in all, it had all the ingredients for a successful afternoon: not too crowded, plenty of interesting things to see and do, and lots of room for the boys to run around and exhaust themselves (which made bedtime a real treat).