How to make a sculpture garden visit fun for grandkids

 

 

 

Brookgreen Gardens, SC is the kind of place that sounds like it would be fun for kids.  However, to toddlers, the visit can be, a little ho-hum.  Plants, sculptures, fountains and a petting zoo spread out all over acres of walking trails is a paradise for active adults like me and my husband, but to toddlers it just means tired legs.

 

Our main motive on our trip to this historical garden was to wear the kiddies out -- nap time is the best time of the day!  So after walking for almost 1 mile of paths, bridges that meandered past treasures of the past, the boys were whining for food and the car.  Since it was December, all food was shut down. I don't get that. 

 

Their parents warned me that the youngest turns into a Gremlin-like character when his stomach gets empty.  So you can imagine the fear when the cafe was closed and he started throwing his goldfish crackers at me. 

 

Thank goodness their Pop Pop is a marathon runner.  He raced back to the car in record-breaking speed only to find me and the munchkins frolicking in a new-found treed paradise for kids.  A storybook village for Cinderella, Dr. Seuss, and Captain Hook were peeking from the trees. Both boys had a surge of energy and sprinted to the surprise fun place. 

 

All was good until the bellies started to growl.  Pop Pop scooped the boys up and set the SUV's GPS to the first food stop. 

Finally graduating college -- as an adult

Started in 1978 fresh out of Lancaster Catholic High School, my college degree was finally finished today.  Raising kids -- seven to be exact -- and operating a few businesses got in the way of checking off that degree finished list item. 

 

I always regretted not finishing.  Two of the four years had been completed, but the last two were twice as hard.  Especially since there were mortgages, car payments, and three kids in college to take care of.  

 

However, it had to get done.  I had to finish what I started to encourage my kids to do the same.  In 2011, I returned to the George Mason University campus full time, and on December 19, 2013, I walked in the graduation ceremony -- with an honor chord!