Dallas Blooms at the Arboretum



What a wonderful time we had at the Dallas Arboretum today! Spring is so beautiful there. They have over 450,000 blooming bulbs and 3,000 azaleas. MSN named it one of the top ten places to visit this spring!



Right now is an even more exciting time to visit because of the Storybook Playhouse exhibits. Scattered throughout the Arboretum, there are incredible children's playhouses built to represent 14 classic works of children's literature. We were at the Arboretum for about 4 hours but never even saw all of the playhouses. Here are a few that we did see:

Treasure Island - Jim Hawkins is a young boy who lives at his parents' inn, the Admiral Benbow, near Bristol, England, in the eighteenth century. An old sea captain named Billy Bones dies in the inn after being presented with a black spot, or official pirate verdict of guilt or judgment. Jim is stirred to action by the spot and its mysterious, accurate portent of Billy's death. Hastily, Jim and his mother unlock Billy's sea chest, finding a logbook and map inside.




Eragon - The Kingdom of Alagaesia is ruled by the evil King Galbatorix, a former dragon rider that betrayed his mates and his people in his quest for power. When the orphan farm boy Eragon finds a blue stone sent by Princess Arya, he sooner realizes that it is a dragon egg.



The Little Prince - Published in 1943, The Little Prince is a fantasy about a pilot, stranded in the Sahara, who meets a small boy from another planet. The boy, who refers to himself as a prince, is on a quest for knowledge.



Teremok - A Russian folk tale about the house and animals who take shelter under it’s ever expanding roof. So the playhouse represents the Teremok itself with animal cut-outs in the walls.





Peter Pan - In stifling Edwardian London, Wendy Darling mesmerizes her brothers nightly with bedtime tales of swordplay, swashbuckling and the fearsome Hook.



The Owl and the Pussycat - The “Owl and the Pussycat” by Edward Lear is represented as an underwater environment with the sandy sea bed below and the “pea green boat” on the surface above. The boat’s sail is the story’s moon and ring from the poem is in the table above the stone bench.



In addition to the Storybook Playhouses, we also got a special treat because this is the week that the Cherry Blossoms are blooming. The blossoms only last for about a week so we made sure to see them. They are so delicate looking and have such a sweet fragrance.







We toured the gardens and took lots of pictures among the beautiful flowers.

























Of course, we had to play a little too. The open grounds lended itself well to lots of running and rolling in the grass, as well as a few silly attempts at cartwheels.





Nicholas presented us with this bowl of chocolate...actually it was a dried magnolia leaf full of little mulch chips. Yum!



If there is a hole, then something should be put in it. Nicholas found this hole in a tree and he reached up to put a rock, sticks, and mulch in it. Then he asked me to pick him up so he could see the booty he had stashed. I let him see and then we cleaned the treasure out of the hole in case others felt the need to stash things there as well.



We all had a fun day and I guess we wore Nicholas out (didn't think it was possibly, did you?). He fell asleep as soon as we got in the car.

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