The Lee Family: Fun at the Dallas Arboretum

Today Olivia and I chose to have a fun day together at the Dallas Arboretum. The elementary school has state-wide STAAR testing Monday through Wednesday and all the students who do not test, which is all the kids under 3rd grade, must be extremely quiet and don't do recess or do anything to get out any energy. I've never understood why they don't just let the younger grades stay home if they chose. So, I promised Olivia that I would keep her out of school and she could decide what we do for fun that day together. She chose Tuesday and wanted to visit the Dallas Zoo or the Arboretum. She finally decided that we should spend the day and have a picnic at the Arboretum, one of my very favorite places.

Stacy drove Sofia to school for me so she could do run club with Antonio and Luca, who is a new fan of run club. She has been driving the girls for me to run club since Luca loves it so much, which has been great for me and gives me two mornings to relax with coffee and not be in a rush. I told Sofia to have a great day and wished her luck on her reading comprehension STAAR test, which she could literally do in her sleep. Olivia slept in until about 8am, which was just what she needed. I took Buddy for a walk around the neighborhood while she ate her breakfast and woke up. She soon joined me on her scooter and we walked the neighborhood together before we got dressed and ready for the Arboretum.

We left around 9am and made it to the Arboretum without any traffic. I brought Olivia's swimsuit, a towel, a change of clothes, my camera and all the usual purse things we'd need. I also brought snacks and our water bottles. It ended up being a cloudy but warm day and it really was perfect for our day out together. We walked around the Arboretum and I think Olivia smelled nearly every flower she saw, so it was slow-going. We walked through the main part of the Arboretum and then decided it was time for lunch. We headed to the Children's Garden and ate at cafe just outside of the garden. We sat outside and enjoyed our meal before heading into the Children's Garden. Olivia didn't remember visiting the area before and it's expanded a lot since our last visit. We started out in the little kid's play area and Olivia had a great time exploring. It was interesting to watch her navigate and explore the play area, especially since she was the biggest kid by a few years. Since it was a regular school day, all the kids at the Arboretum were under 5 years old.

After she played for a bit, we headed to the "tree house" canopy area and she loved going down the spiral staircase. There were several school groups so it became pretty busy with kids and decided to explore another area to get out of the huge group of kids. From the tree house, we headed over to the outdoor class room and explored the garden maze and learned the different parts of plants and flowers. Olivia enjoyed playing hopscotch and writing on the chalk board. Although there was still so much to explore, we needed to get on the road to meet Sofia at the bus in just over an hour. One of the girls' favorite things to do at the Arboretum is to play in the frog fountains and I promised Olivia that she would have time to do that. So, we left the Children's Garden and walked back toward the main part of the Arboretum. Originally we waited to catch a ride back to the main area, but gave up and walked instead. We walked to the frog fountains and ducked behind a row of hedges where Olivia changed into her swimsuit. She was so excited to play in the water and ran around splashing and getting sprayed on the back. There were a few little kids splashing in the fountain too and they watched Olivia and tried to copy and follow her. She had so much fun splashing and I was surprised that she didn't get cold since the cloud cover and breeze made it feel cooler than it was. She played for about 40 minutes before I wrapped her up in her towel and we headed out to our car. Once we made it to our car, Olivia changed out of her swimsuit and into her fresh dry clothes. We loaded up and headed toward home and Olivia was asleep within 15 minutes. It was such a fun day to explore the Arboretum with Olivia and I know it was a lot more interesting than sitting quietly in her classroom.

Arboretum Selfie!