saturday in the woods

This weekend, when I was feeling slightly groggy but not totally out of it, I took the gang to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center for a mid-morning/early afternoon adventure. There was some sort of arbor thing going on that sounded like fun for the kids. I read something about roasting marshmallows and free admission, so that's all I really needed to know. We packed a picnic lunch and headed south on MoPac.

Cries of "I'm hungry! I'm hungry!" reverberated from the back of the car, so upon finding a parking space, which turned out to be almost as long as the drive itself, I made the executive decision that we would have our picnic inside the car. They actually fell for it. The adventure had begun!

Tillie was strapped in the baby bjorn for the rest of our trip, so this is the only evidence that she was actually part of the party. Mmmm...cheese.

After our picnic we had a five minute walk to get to the actual wildflower center and then an additional ten minute walk to get to all the tree happenings. Catcher observed, "Wow. We're really in the woods now." I guess you could call it the woods.

Catcher inhaled his marshmallows so quickly that he practically choked; Scout took a little more time to enjoy the warm, delicious gooey-ness.

[Side note: How to Roast a Marshmallow, by Catcher Wheat. First you find the perfect two-pronged stick because two marshmallows are better than one. Next, put your marshmallows on the stick. Move in close to the fire and "act" like you're roasting the marshmallows. Back away quickly (so the marshmallows don't actually get any hint of toast), take marshmallows off the stick and shove them in your mouth as fast as you can. Perfection.]

After the marshmallow sugar-rush it was time to get down to serious business and climb a tree. It was very serious business. You can tell by looking at Catcher's face.

Scout thought the tree-climbing was just okay. The residual marshmallow goo on her hands made the dirt cling to them that much better, so she spent most of the time telling me her hands were dirty.

I'm pretty sure Tillie enjoyed herself, too. She didn't get a marshmallow--I diverted her attention away with a granola bar--but she's watching these two and taking notes; waiting for her day to run wild and free of the baby bjorn.