The Lee Family: Visiting the Ft. Worth Botanical Garden

The kids had Good Friday off from school so I decided to take them to the Ft. Worth Botanical Garden. We've only ever been there for the butterfly exhibit and have never actually walked through the entire gardens. I thought it would be much smaller than the Dallas Botanical Gardens, so we could enjoy it more quickly since the girls' Grandpa and Grandma would be arriving later in the day. We picked Liam up at his house and headed to the Botanical Gardens. We parked and headed for the entrance. The girls clowned around with some statues on the way in and all three kids found lady bugs in the pansies. They had a great time finding lady bugs and they really were everywhere.

We headed inside and started walking through the gardens. It ended up being a perfect day, even a little cool. The Botanical Gardens have an exhibit going on that includes fabric-covered animals and flowers that light up at night. They looked really beautiful by day too. We walked through the gardens and Liam was really into naming all the plants and flowers he knew. At one point, Olivia whispered "And I thought you knew a lot about gardening." It was really cool to see how engaged Liam is in everything around him. After the main garden, we ended up walking through the nature preserve, which felt like we were in the middle of a forrest rather than the middle of Ft. Worth. We continued on the raised walkway and made it to the formal gardens. As we walked, Olivia started complaining that she was starving. I asked one of the workers and he said the restaurant was closed but that there were snacks and drinks at the Japanese Gardens.

We walked through the formal garden and made our way to the entrance of the Japanese Gardens. The only snacks they had were candy bars, chips and peanuts. They also had water, soda and those Japanese marble drinks the girls always get when we go to sushi. The girls got a bag of chips and one of the marble drinks and convinced Liam to get the same. We sat outside and enjoyed the snacks and drink and then we headed into the Japanese Gardens. We were all pretty tired and hungry and I considered telling the kids that we should do the Japanese Gardens another day. However, we were told entrance to the Japanese Garden is free to kids on Good Friday, so we decided to go and explore for a bit! We walked through the entrance and it felt like we had entered a different world! It was gorgeous and so different than the rest of the gardens. Immediately I was so glad we decided to go inside.

The Japanese Gardens are full of small lakes and very dense vegetation and it's so peaceful. We walked around and the kids fed the koi and then they played on the stepping stones in one of the little lakes. There were so many beautiful places to take pictures. It was so amazing! Plus, it didn't feel very crowded, so we really could roam around freely. Liam is an absolute pleasure to have around at anytime, but it was especially great to have him around four our day at the Botanical Gardens. We took a few selfies and then headed back toward our car. It was actually quite a long walk, but I kept promising lunch, so we were able to make it back with little complaining.

Once we made it to the car, I asked what the kids wanted to eat. Without a pause, Liam said "Sushi!" So, I found a place nearby and we headed to the University Park Center and ate at Pacific Table. I wondered how busy it would be, since it was already 2pm, but it was packed! We sat outside and it was obviously not really a "kid-friendly" place. It was a total hipster restaurant with crazy food combinations. The girls both decided to order burgers while Liam chose the "Penny roll" which was this crazy sushi roll that had a tofu wrap, instead of seaweed and each piece was topped with a spicy shrimp. It looked amazing and I was totally impressed when Liam gobbled it down. He was still hungry, so he ate half of Olivia's burger and was super excited when he noticed that it had arugula on it! He told us how much he loves arugula with a little parmesan and olive oil! Such a great palate! We finished our late lunch and headed home. We dropped Liam off around 4:30 and drove home. It was such a fun day and we were excited to get home and wait for Grandpa and Grandma to arrive!

Ladybugs!