morning glories… in our backyard

So here’s the thing… I live in a truly incredible city.  I feel so lucky that my family and I have access to some of the best museums, street fairs, restaurants, ever-changing music and shows, and of course, one of the most beautiful skylines!- and it’s all right in our backyard.  Without a doubt, it’s this culture, this sense of energy, that keeps us where we are despite sometimes feeling like we’re living inside a postage stamp with a rambunctious toddler and slightly neurotic, but equally rambunctious dog.  And while our friends, one by one, move out to the (very spacious!) suburbs, we still can’t seem to imagine living anywhere else or raising our son anywhere else.  Who knows what the future really holds for us, or where we’ll end up one day, but for now this great city is our home.  So I thought that it would be fun to add a new series to my blog in which from time to time I share some of the cool things we get to do in our backyard.

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Every Monday morning, the Garfield Park Conservatory hosts “Morning Glories for Families,” a drop-in session for little kids to come by and explode the plants and activities in their Children’s Garden.  No pre-registration is required and it’s free (although a $2 donation is appreciated.)  The staff is friendly and thoroughly energetic and kids can choose to participate in a variety of small group activities or just wander around and explore on their own.  It’s great that despite living among so many buildings and so much asphalt, we can still be totally surrounded by so much green.

 The kids can take water bottles and are free to water any of the plants:

They are also free to water themselves:

They can see the tiny things using a magnifying glass (or just make their faces look huge:)

They can borrow binoculars to see the high leaves of the tall plants, or in this case… make everything look very small (yes, he usually prefers to look through the “wrong” end of binoculars making them into more of a microscope.)

And best of all, they can stroll around with grandma and just explore this beautiful place:

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