Dallas Blooms

The children and I enjoyed a delightful morning together this weekend at the Dallas Arboretum. February and March have been crazy-busy in our household due to my insane teachng schedule (Monday evenings and Saturday mornings - yuck!) plus John and Scott's birthdays and other assorted activities, that I wanted to consciously take some time off to do something that would impose a sense of relaxation.

Hence the trip to the Arboretum, which I have described as being a relaxing destination for our family (read: me) before. The spring festival at the Arboretum recently commenced and I thought this would be a good time to cheeck out the spring flowers. Below is a view of the lake, so crystal clear on a bright and sunny Sunday morning.

The tulips are single-handedly why I wanted to come to the Arboretum. I LOVE tulips! The tulips are blooming across town and I knew this would be the place to be to see thousands in bloom at once.

My photos are pretty but they don't do them justice. The beds were gorgeous. Even Amelia said they were stunning, and that is coming from a 7 year-old's point of view.

Tulips with daffodils and other assorted blooming flowers.

Another feature of the Spring Blooms festival at the Arboretum are the fairy tale houses built all across the property. There were seven fairy tale houses, each representing one of the Disney or Hans Christiam Anderson tales that the children could explore. Amelia and John loved the houses and they eagerly ran to each "castle" to explore its contents.

Amelia and John outside of Rapunzel's house.

Crawling through miniature doors in Rapunzel's house...

And jumping through big doors in the same house!

Amelia sitting pretty with some daffodills outside of the Rapunzel house.

What an awesome morning! Beautiful sunshine, a crisp spring morning (cool but enjoyable) with thousands of blooming flowers and the opportunity to enjoy nature and being outdoors. The kids and I had a discussion as to whether we enjoyed fall or spring better at the Arboretum and we were indecisive as to which was better. Right now, I am thinking spring.