Friday Greenhouse Adventures



Like I mentioned in my summer staycation checklist post, I got to explore a new-to-me greenhouse
when our friends came to visit! It was a cute little spot, tucked off of a small path in a nature preserve. We brought our lunch and ate at a nearby picnic table (until the biting flies chased us away. Seriously, what's your DEAL, biting flies?!), and it was a fun time exploring!



This was a free, fun little adventure for us, and I got to see native-to-our-area plants, as well as let Aiden and Emma explore the area.

While I value exploring, I also want to instill that as a value in my little ones! I want them to be imaginative and experience new environments...and sometimes that means setting your 7-month-old down on your baby sling so she can dig her hands into gravel and feel its texture (and then immediately sweeping her mouth because she is NINJA QUICK AT EATING SAID GRAVEL.) Aiden found a little wagon and watering can and was immediately entertained (who said kids need toys, anyway??), and he walked around inspecting plants and pulling the wagon.

If someone had walked up, it may have looked like I am the mama of some wild kids: Aiden pulling a wagon that doesn't belong to him, and Emma scooping up (and trying to eat) gravel with her baby hands. But to me, it looked like the little ones were exploring their new environments and thinking creatively! (Or, at least Aiden's decision to collect our things in the wagon was creative. I'm not sure Emma's eating gravel can count as creative.......)

No one was around to mind that Aiden was borrowing the items, and if a park "ranger" had asked us to leave those things alone, we totally would have. But why create unnecessary rules for them for the sake of their looking "behaved"? I'd much rather let them be free to explore, to think creatively, to experience their environment, and to learn (that gravel isn't the good kind of crunchy, ahem, EMMA.)










If you're into plants (hi, like me here!), check out my tips for growing one succulent into an entire succulent garden. If you're looking for more outdoor adventures, here's my tips for hiking with a baby and tips for taking a baby to the beach

Where have you been exploring lately? What's on your list of places to adventure? 

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