Picture perfect weekend

A perfectly clear sky Friday night at the Prairie Preserve.

James and Grandma Marilyn on our picnic.
James' view: the adults still eating their picnic. (taken by James)

James' view: Chasing Nathan James and Nathan in the sculpture garden at Kohl's Children's museum in Glenview Illinois. This statue was called fly fishing. You can't see it too well, but it was an fish airplane!
Me at the Chicago Botanical Garden.

If only all weekends in Chicago were like this. The weather was absolutely bea-u-tiful!! We took advantage of it by being outside as much as we could. Here's a quick recap along with the pictures. .

Our weekend got off to a beautiful start on Friday. The weather had gone from a low of mid 40's on Wednesday to a hot 93 on Thursday, and back to breezy high 60s on Friday! My mom was in town and she put together a delicious picnic from Whole Foods. We ate at the nearby Prairie preserve. A fruit tart with buttery crust is healthy if it's from Whole Foods, right? We followed the meal with a stroll in the sunset.

Saturday I had to work in the morning, but returned by noon to Jason folding laundry that he had done and fresh with ideas of how to enjoy the rest of the day. We decided to drive about an hour north to a children's museum and then go to the Chicago Botanical Gardens.

The boys had so much fun at the museum, and we were happy because we got in free with a "PWC perk" corporate membership. We've now visited 5 children's museums! (Houston, Denver, DuPage, Chicago, and Kohls (in Glenview, IL))

The Botanical garden was the fun part for Jason and I, though the boys certainly enjoyed running around. We were happy to get in free there as well with our Morton Arboretum pass.

Chicago Botanical Gardens has 23 gardens and three natural habitats. We obviously didn't see them all, but we want to come back. There was even a garden that was made just for my boys, the model train garden!

It cost five bucks per adult and three per child. They only took cash and we knew we didn't have that much, so I said they could just go in. We almost didn't have enough for that--not that we couldn't have gone back to the visitor center and taken out more money, but then it would have felt like we were really spending money. I had nine dollars, Jason had one, and I scraped up every last penny in my purse to make eleven dollars exactly! The boys loved it and I enjoyed visiting the rose garden, peeking in on a charming wedding reception in the English Walled garden, and viewing the Japanese gardens from across a lake.

Here's more pics of the model train garden: http://www.chicagobotanic.org/railroad/rr_pictures.php

What a lovely day with my sweet family.

And then, to top off our weekend, after church we had a delicious Sunday dinner at Jason's parent's house. All the food was delicious, especially the barbecue chicken and the dessert. Jason and I were able to sneak off for a quick walk at the Arboretum. We really love being out in Nature. I'm filled with appreciation and awe at this gorgeous world, and I'm grateful for places like the Arboretum, the Prairie Preserve, and the Botanical gardens that have helped conserve and create these beautiful landscapes.

Now we are recharged for the week. Hope you had a good weekend too!