Day 3 of William's visit

Monday - You read yesterday's blog? William stayed at his Aunt's for the night. This morning at 8:15 am James and I went to Sarah's workplace and picked up the 4 cousins for the day. 

First we went to IHOP for breakfast so Sarah didn't have to worry about that. When each boy picked the Happy face waffles but didn't want to have this or that (which was included) or said "take everything and ask your cousins later who wants it". Well, the "platter" was cleaned. We got our money's worth. Sorry, I was so busy forgot tot take photos.

From there we went straight to Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden. It was perfect timing since it was still cool enough. Ha-ha, I asked the boys to not run off. They decided it needed to be a photo of them in order of hight with Papa in there too. Rememberence of last night? I thought they were funny.

They led, we followed. They went straight to the conservatory. We went to the butterflys first. It was very interesting. Then we went tot the cactus section which I usually find not so interesting. I did ask the cultuarist one question though and it was very interesting. All about the cactus behind James. Its only goal in life is to have one flower. And then it dies. After quite a while the LGBG is very lucky to have that happen and there will be a lot of baby plants. We might have to go back in a few weeks to find out more about it. Our incredible nature!

We went through the orchids but the boys were not very interested. Outside was statue #2 and they were wondering about that. 

I am always fascinated by the pitcher plunts. There were not many like I remembered last year, but there seemed to be more this year again. I forgot to take a more photogenic pictures of the plants but the boys were so interesting and so much fun.

Over the bridge the boys saw this turtle. What is it? Caleb insisted that it was not a snapping turtle. It's a "painted turtle".

Close to the bamboo forest there is this huge stone which always invites the boys to climb on. I took a half a dozen photos. But all similar.

On the bridge I see the lotus. Oh, they are so gorgeous. I had one in my little fish pond at Kentucky Lake.

And then we came to this place. William read the directions. An invitation to rearrange the stones into cairns. Well, that's what the boys wanted to do. All 5 of them.

All were getting tired. It was getting hot. But of course the boys needed to run around the "tree house", that's what Owen called it. 

Oh, they remember There are the monkey bars. Our monkeys need to have a go. Not high enough for tall William. His feet can't leave the floor.

The adventage of a membership. You don't have to stay long enough "to get your money's worth". You can come any time. So, when it was getting really hot, you just go home.

While I prepped lunch, Caleb wanted to play chess and asked William. Colin and Owen watched intently and gave comments as if they knew. Unfortunately Caleb had just started learning and was not taught the rules 100 % clearly. But I think they enjoyed it.

We did lunch outside on the patio under the awning. The dessert of vanilla icecream with toppings of choice were definately a success.

I don't know why the photo taking came to a close for the day at this time. We did a lot of different games inside. It was getting very hot outside. James took them to play soccer on the big greens under the powerlines. But not too long. When they were back the boys had fun playing darts upstairs with William introducing shaking hands every time at the start of a game.

We played cards and "hide the thimble". Then Dad Wade came to collect them. And the three of us took it easy for the rest of the evening.

Another adventure tomorrow. It will be early. So ... night, night.