Chicago Botanic Garden

Last Friday, the kids and I were invited to the Chicago Botanic Garden. Now, we have never been before but I jumped at the change to take them!

When we got there, we headed to the Children's Growing Garden. This is a great garden for the kids to run around and explore. And, my kids were thrilled with the spray bottles they have there for the kids to water the plants with. We did some stamping with vegetables ... who knew, not only are they yummy to eat, but you can make some fun art with them as well! The kids planted some marigolds in biodegradable pots that we got to take home (and they immediately planted them when we got home!). And they mixed some herbs up to make some herb butter with. Basically, we hung out and just had a fun time!

After spending some time at the Children's Growing Garden we were going to head to the butterfly house, but mother nature had other plans for us! A storm was rolling in, so instead we went to the visitor's center to wait out the rain. It turned out to be great timing because everyone was hungry so we ended up getting some lunch. The food there was SO delicious (I will add though, it was a bit more than I would usually spend on lunch for the kids and I). I was happy to learn the produce used is grown locally by students in the Chicago area through the Green Youth Farm program, which I think just sounds like a fabulous idea.

Luckily for us, the rain passed after not too much time and so we headed back to the butterfly house. Now, no lie when I tell you I could have sat inside the butterfly house for hours. The butterflies are gorgeous. And they just fly around you. The kids were in awe too ... I heard lots of "Come see this one!" "Oh mom, you have to look at this green one!" "Here's some more". My 6 year old wanted to photograph all of them I think too. I told him next time we come, we're going to bring two cameras since we were kind of fighting over the one I had with me ;-) Frankly, I love this. I loved how excited they were, even if it meant I had to share my camera!

We can't wait to go back and explore even more of the gardens. There are 25 different gardens here (and 4 natural areas), and we only saw two of them!


Disclosure: We were given complementary parking passes to come visit the gardens. But as always, all thoughts and opinions are my own.