Playdate At The MSU Gardens

Today the weather was absolutely beautiful, and it was a perfect day to head to the MSU Gardens. If you're not familiar with the gardens at MSU, you really must go. I showed you a while back a few pictures of the Beal Gardens. Today we headed to the 4-H Children's Garden and Horticulture Gardens which are different. It's a must see in the summer. Beautiful readers, absolutely beautiful! It's a great place to take the kids and there are some great things for them to do there. I can't believe this was our first trip there this summer. We must get there more often! The kids and I met up with my longtime friend Marie and her two kids Kyra and Connor. We hadn't seen them since April so I was glad we were finally able to get together this summer. Marie and I both decided ahead of time to grab some lunch on our way there and turn our playdate/garden exploring into a picnic at the gardens. It worked out perfectly! I picked up Jimmy John's and she picked up McDonald's. We found a nice shady spot under a tree in the Horticulture Gardens and had our picnic lunch!


The flowers in bloom were absolutely gorgeous. While my green thumb is pretty good sometimes, I think I could use these horticulture experts at home. My pretty hanging basket I showed you awhile back doesn't look anything like these...

Aren't these baskets gorgeous? They must have at least a dozen, if not more of them hanging in this round pergola.

After our lunch we headed into the Children's Garden and right away the kids spotted the train (the Spartan Express) that runs through a patch of flowers. It only runs on Thursdays from 1-3pm so we lucked out. Here's Em and Connor watching it go around and around and around.


We spent our time watching the kids explore the tree house, walking on the dance chimes, playing in the garden observatory, looking for turtles in the pond, playing at the merry-go-round fountains, winding their way through the Alice in Wonderland Maze & Secret Garden, watching the train some more, to name just a few. So much to do in the gardens! Since I took too many pictures to post individually, I've compiled the rest in a slideshow. You can view them here: MSU 4-H Children's Garden Photos. We had fun times in the gardens with great friends. Thanks Toburen's for meeting us for a playdate!