Duke Gardens

Today Gillian and I visited Duke Gardens (I know, I know enemy territory) with our playgroup. It was another beautiful fall day and with my new found nature lover, I am trying to expose her to the great outdoors as much as possible. We got to see ducks and geese, a Japanese teahouse, and an English garden. The most fun for Gillian, however, was collecting rocks. I brought along some paper bags for the kids to collect things - thinking it would result in a diverse group of sticks, leaves, and flowers to potentially use in some future crafts. Gillian had her own ideas however - she wanted rocks. And only rocks. When I put a stick in her bag she reached in and pulled it out. When I handed her a flower, she threw it on the ground. She found brown rocks and grey rocks, small and big, but rest assured everything that went in her bag was a rock.

The other thing you may notice in these photos is that Gillian is only wearing one shoe. Somehow between the house and the park we lost a shoe - I searched the car, the bag, and the house when we got home - it's gone. Literally, the shoe has vanished. Oh well, what's a little dirt on a pink sock.

We had a great time and will return to enemy territory again soon.