arboretum (twice)

A week before school got out, Joanna invited Colby and I to go to the Dallas Arboretum with her, Marlie, and Brock.  They have season passes and could get us in for free, so you better believe we jumped on that opportunity.  We hadn't been to see the Twelve Days of Christmas Displays for a few years, and I knew Colby would love it.

Everything was just as beautiful as I remembered it :)  You wander along the path to each of the 12 Victorian-style gazebos depicting scenes from the traditional song.  I took a picture of the swans to show Brooke, and Colby wanted his picture taken by the drummers drumming.  (They also have the music playing as you walk from gazebo to gazebo.)

This year they had a whole Christmas Village, which was so well done! An arboretum volunteer handed us a scavenger hunt page as we entered the village, and the kids ran from shop to shop finding the hidden animal inside each one. There were only a few people wandering around, so it was easy to keep track of the kids and where they were going.

My favorite was Colby's reaction to the meat in the butcher shop, haha.

Him and Marlie pretended to play the piano together in the music shop.

Then it was time for his solo...

Joanna and I both loved this cute house with the flower boxes, so when none of the kids wanted to pose for a picture, we asked a stranger to take one of us!  

We climbed aboard Santa's sleigh before leaving the village and heading to the Children's Adventure Gardens.

By some miracle we were the only ones at the playground, so they kids had plenty of time to run and play together.  They all took off their shoes and were having a good 'ol time playing in the sand box while Joanna and I had lunch together.

We didn't have a ton of time at the science area, but just enough time to do a few of the cool activities.

We probably would have stayed longer, but I needed to get back to pick Brooke up from school.  As we passed this statue, Colby requested a picture. Sometimes he surprises me with what he thinks is cool, but I was happy to take the picture :)

Joanna commented that we would have to do it again when the bigger kids were out of school and before their passes expired.  So, we did just that...

First things, first: A picture by the 30 foot Christmas Tree :)

And one with Albert Einstein :)

I didn't take many pictures in the Christmas Village, but they were all very much into finding all the hidden animals again.

We then toured the historic DeGolyer House, which was super fancy.  Or "lavishly decorated in a European style" as the website explained.  The house was home to several special collections, including nutcrackers, nativities, and snow globes.  My kids were amazed by everything, but I had to remind them (mostly Colby) 100 times not to touch anything.

As we entered the Children's Adventure Gardens, the volunteer told us to watch out for animal statues wearing Santa hats.  If we found any, we were supposed to take a picture with it, then stop by the visitor center for a special prize.  Anytime you mention a prize to my kids, you better believe they will do what it takes to get it.  Challenge accepted :)

Their picture with the bat was probably my favorite, haha. Joanna pointed out that her kids both made the same "Eek" face, whereas my kids made a "Aaah" face.  

We spent an hour or more doing the interactive science games, exploring the incredible edible garden, building their own gardens (pictured below), using a huge kaleidoscope, and much more!

We really had a blast and were so thankful for the invitation, twice!!  It's so nice when the kids can have a great time and I get lots of time to chat with a great friend.