Arboretum--Illinois-style

I heard that the arboretum near Wheaton was fabulous, so I decided to take the kids and check it out. We invited our neighbors to go, so Lyn and her daughter Brianna joined us. Although we didn't spend a lot of time checking out the flowers, the arboretum sports an awesome Children's Garden. We spent several hours enjoying the outdoors and exploring.

Here the kids are soaking their toes in the wading pool.

I really am not that great of a photographer, but digital cameras these days are incredible! I loved these lily pads in the frog pond and thought I'd take a picture....after all, with digital "film" what did I have to lose? But this photo turned out great! I love the way you can see the ripples in the water, as well as the reflection of the clouds. Thanks for indulging me!

The kids were all lined up here taking a quick break from climbing on the GIANT acorns. Yes, that would have been a GREAT photo op, but I waited too long and then I got this wonderful shot--complete with the very festive, outdoorsy trash can. Nice.

Oh, the amazement of water. Especially water coming from a pump...at your command. The kids loved playing here and worked for nearly an hour trying to get the entire pool at the end totally filled up with water. For those of you really scritinizing the photo, the small child behind Grayson did not attack....at least to my knowledge.

Parker and Halle encouraging the water to flow down the waterways to fill the bucket.

Parker did have to get firm with a few kids that CLEARLY did NOT get the memo on the filling-the-bucket plan. Several attempted to thwart the said plans and pull the drain! But thanks to the persistence of the Harris children, the day was saved and the bucket did, indeed, get filled!

A great time was had by all!

Resting on the GIANT roots before calling it a day.