The Lee Family: Kindergarten Field Trip to the Arboretum

Yesterday I joined Olivia and the rest of the Kindergarteners on their field trip to the Dallas Arboretum. Drake's Mom, Lindsey, drove me and Charley's mom to the Arboretum and I was able to get them both in for free with our membership. The kids had arrived on the bus shortly before we parked, so we met up with Mrs. Schultz and all the kids and split up into our chaperone groups. Olivia, Gracie and Scout were in my group and we could go and see anything we wanted. We started off in the pumpkin village and the girls enjoyed running and jumping on the hay bales, walking through the pumpkin houses and climbing on the pumpkins. I was able to get a few cute picture of my girls, although Scout wasn't interested in being in most of the pictures. She would hide or run away every time she saw me with my camera raised. Beside my iPhone I also brought my real camera and planned to take photos of the girls and the pumpkins. After enjoying the pumpkins, Olivia wanted to visit the frog fountain and along the way we found a dragon statue which Olivia and I both agreed Sofia would love to see! Not only was it a cool dragon statue, but the dragon held and was reading a book! Everything Sofia loves!

We made it to the frog fountain and Olivia kept asking if she could run through it, but I convinced her that being wet for the rest of the day wouldn't be fun. We walked down the lane with the huge crepe myrtles and met up with several other classmates before heading to the open area where we decided to have our lunch. All three of the girls were starving, even though it was only 11am. Along the way we ran into a beautiful young lady in a pink dress getting her pictures taken for her quinceanera. Each time we've visited the Dallas Arboretum we've run into at least one girl preparing for her quinceanera and both girls loved getting their pictures taken with "the princess." This time was no different and Olivia and Gracie were happy to stand next to the young girl for their photo! So cute. We continued on to our picnic spot and found the perfect area to sit. I brought my picnic blanket and set it up so Gracie, Scout, and Olivia could take off their shoes, sit down and enjoy their lunch. It was really perfect weather and we had the entire are to ourselves. I tried to get a cute photo of the girls, but Scout kept getting up and running away! I guess she really must not like pictures! After the girls finished their lunches, they ran around for a bit before we headed to the classroom for our educational portion of the visit.

All of Mrs. Schultz' students arrived at the classroom and sat down on the rug while the Arboretum volunteer explained what she does and that they would be learning about seeds and how they grow from her. She started off by reading a really sweet story about two seeds that are planted next to each other but grow into completely different plants. She made the story interactive, which the kids loved. After, they sat at tables and she walked around the room and had each child pull out one pumpkin seed from a cut pumpkin. With their seed, eat kiddo went up to the table and put it in a small seed pot and added soil. The instructor told the kids that they could take their seed home, water it and it would grow into a pumpkin vine. She then passed our a lima bean to each child and showed them how to pull it apart and explained the different areas of the seed and how it would grow into a plant, if it was put into soil. It was really interesting and she did a great job involving the kids and keeping them interested.

Once we were done, Scout, Olivia Gracie and I headed back out to the field where we'd set up our picnic and decided to explore more of the Arboretum with several of their classmates. It was getting pretty hot and the kids were getting tired, so it was good timing when we had to meet back at the front gate. We originally got confused and met at the wrong gate, so Charley's Mom Hillary, who used to be a school teacher, involved them all in a game of freeze-walk. The kids LOVED it and were completely focused on her. We made it back to the main gate, met with Mrs. Schultz and headed to the bus with our group. Olivia was sad and didn't want to say goodbye so Mrs. Schultz asked if she would sit next to her. Olivia adores Mrs. Schultz, so she quickly agreed and got on the bus. It was a fun visit, although it seemed to go by so quickly!

Pumpkins by the entrance!