Garden Tales at the Virginia Zoo

We're big fans of Zoo Tales at the Virginia Zoo, so we gave a big cheer when they brought back their summertime sister program, Garden Tales, at the beginning of April. Like Zoo Tales, the Garden Tales program consists of a few themed stories suitable for toddlers and younger kids, but instead of meeting new animal friends each week, participants are introduced to a different kind of plant that grows around the zoo, with an activity to follow.

This year's inaugural Garden Tales focused on vegetables, and how they can be either "tops" or "bottoms." The kids were invited to examine some vegetables up close, and to guess whether they grew above or below the ground by putting the relevant veggie cutout above or below the soil line on a felt board. Some of them were familiar, like carrots, but a few, like radishes with their leafy tops, required more thought. The funniest part, I think, was seeing the storytime leader hold out a round green head of lettuce and ask the group what it was. "It's a salad!" one toddler piped up, and the others scrambled to voice their agreement: yes, yes, this is definitely a salad.

Baby A. and I have been frequent Zoo Tales-goers, but to tell the truth, she's become a little bored with animals lately (after having been asked over and over again for the past 18 months what this one or that one "says," I'm not sure I blame her).  With all of the plants in our yard bursting into bloom, and because of our renewed visits to the farm, she's become really interested in plants over the past few weeks -- how they grow, what they eat, what makes them happy -- so Garden Tales is right up her alley. She's asked every morning this week whether we're going to see the "baby plants" today and seems bummed when I tell her she'll have to content herself with the pallets of seedlings in our backyard. It's just not as exciting when there's not a lion or two nearby, I guess. (Or a tiger -- the VA Zoo's new zoo tigers arrived in their habitats in last week!)

The Virginia Zoo has some gorgeous gardens and trained horticulturalists to recreate animal habitats from all over the world (many of the treats the animals enjoy are grown right on the zoo grounds). The gardens and the plants are so pretty and well-kept that it's almost a reason in itself to visit. (You can read more about the zoo's different gardens and the plants in them here).

Garden Tales is held every Thursday morning at 11 in the zoo's Eco-Garden, just off of the main plaza. It's free with admission (and always free to zoo members).

I can't get over how much older Baby A. looks in this picture compared to our first visit to the zoo last summer. Next year she'll probably be as tall as that turtle, right?

The Virginia Living Museum

The Virginia Living Museum was one of my favorite places to go growing up, the absolute best field trip destination. While I always loved the zoo and the aquarium, there was something special about the VLM. The animals weren't exotic but native to my home state, ones I could, theoretically encounter in my backyard. And yet at the museum, I had a chance to see them up close in their own habitats, not bounding away or freezing in fear but doing the kind of things they do in their daily animal lives.

I was excited to share it with Anne. This is a kid who loves all things outdoors and animals of all stripes. She's a Virginia girl, too boot. So J and I hit the museum on a cloudy day last week with high hopes of initiating her into the tribe.

But we ran into trouble early on. Surprise tantrum -- hit the deck! I think it was prompted by the fact that we wouldn't let her take her coat off. Oh, almost two...you are a delight.

Still, despite a few squalls, we ended up having a great time exploring the VLM (which was nice, because after paying over $30 to get in, we weren't looking forward to 1-2-3 Magicking our way out before we'd seen everything). The interior exhibits, featuring plants and wildlife from different geographical regions of Virginia, were punctuated by interactive discovery centers where kids can piece together fossils, climb through tree trunks, and examine brightly-painted butterfly wings. We especially loved the Coastal Plain aquariums and the World of Darkness gallery, and seeing all of the animals that have so creatively adapted to life without light.

But the real highlight of the trip was a stroll over the elevated boardwalk that spans Deer Park Lake to see the big stars of the museum: coyotes, foxes, eagles, deer...  My favorites were the crafty (and slightly neurotic?) raccoons, James liked the wolves, and the playful otters made A. laugh out loud. Not an easy task on this particular day, but those otters are seriously charming. Even the most crotchety of toddlers cannot resist.

Have you been to the VLM lately? What was your favorite exhibit?

Introducing Lady Kitty

The past few weeks have ended up being more than a little stressful around these parts. I have been feeling under the weather for a while, J.'s been out of town, and all of a sudden we found ourselves with too many obligations to go around and ended up having to jettison some of them, which never feels good.

The past few days I've tried to stick close to home as much as possible, to try and get back on my feet. And one of the nice things about doing that is there's more time for at-home fun. Yesterday, I took out some scraps of felt from my fabric bag and whipped up a felt board and some outfits for Lady Kitty and Anouk and I have been enjoying her ever since. Isn't she chic?

Watch those ta-tas, Miss Kitty! You're perilously close to busting out.

It's amazing what a little craft therapy can do for your outlook, isn't it? If you had told me during my busy law student years that one day soon the highlight of my week would be making outfits for a felt cat and dressing said cat with my toddler daughter...I wouldn't have believed you. But there you have it. 

Speaking of highlights, there's a lot to look forward to today. This next week is shaping up to be pretty great. We have some fun outings planned, we're visiting our good friends' new house tomorrow, and most excitingly of all, sometime this afternoon or evening we'll have a new cousin. If you have a moment today, please send Baby H.'s mama and daddy some good vibes for an easy and uplifting birth experience. We can't wait to meet him!

Happy Friday, everybody! What were your favorite things about this week? What are you looking forward to this weekend? 

Ice Boats

Today it's wet outside, and also pretty hot, and we've already had one very public, very awful diaper blowout at the library about one minute after playgroup started that involved not only a diaper change but a change of clothes for me and Anouk both. So basically: today is turning out to be the kind of day where you just cut your losses and retreat home and haul a bucket of water out onto the deck and break out the tray of ice boats you've been saving for a day just like this one.

Ice boats are such a simple yet genius idea that I am almost tempted to try and take credit for them, but alas, I cannot tell a lie, I learned about them from Under the Pecan Tree. Here is how it goes: fill an ice tray with water. Then fill the water-filled tray with small plastic toys. Freeze so that the toys are encased in ice like Han Solo in carbonite. I can't even believe I bothered to type that out, that's how easy it is.

But it was also a big hit, and though we are wetter overall, we're less sweaty, Baby A. got in some fun sensory play, and Mama got to sit and put her feet up for a bit. Maybe today is turning itself around, after all?