Missouri Botanical Garden

We recently decided to go check out the Missouri Botanical Garden.  I wasn't sure the girls would enjoy it.  Looking at plants just doesn't hold the same appeal as going to ride roller coasters.  But Emily had been on a field trip to a botanical garden with her Biology classmates and had actually been pestering us to take her again.  So off we went!

One of the first things you see when you walk in is this amazing glass sculpture hanging thingy.  It is incredible.  The bottom portion is clear glass.  It gets bluer (more blue?) as it goes until the top is made completely of  deep blue glass.  It looks like a giant plant.  The clear part is the root under ground and the blue part is the flower.  At least that's what it looked like to me.

Close-up of the "roots"

Even closer close-up of the roots.

Even if you are not huge fan of plants, there are plenty of other things to see there.

Like these sculptures!

And even these cool glass sculptures.

Some of the sculptures declined to be kissed.

But other sculptures are up for a good game of patty cake.

This is a really nifty area inside a greenhouse.  It had some cool Moroccan style tiles and fountains as well as this roman style entrance.  I can't believe no one got more pictures of this!

I know that the girls took pictures of this area but I can't find them.  Katie and Emily each had a camera.  Katie took over 100 photos and Emily took almost 300!  I had to buy her a new SD card while we were there.  GG and Leonard were with us and I can't find one photo with them in it!

 

(eta:  I just found this photo showing some of the tiles and a fountain)

 

Oh wait, if you look back at the photo of Katie playing patty cake, you can see GG and Leonard in the background looking at a map.

But I do have a picture of this leaf.

And this knot hole.

And stuff.

Fence

More leaves

Wall

Bark

Flower

Bees making honey.

Girls who forget to take pictures of people.

And now for your viewing pleasure, here is but a small portion of the photos the girls took on this outing.  If I can remember how to make a slideshow, I'll upload a lot more and you can pretend you are at the garden with us!

Little Shop of Horrors!!

 Ben just finished up a production of "Little Shop of Horrors".  He played Mr Mushnik, the man who owns the flower shop.  This is one of my favorite musicals!  I made the kids watch it years ago because I think it's hilarious.  Emily and Katie both thought it was more horrifying than hilarious although now that Emily is older she finds it funny.  Katie plugged her ears through portions of the show.  She doesn't think a giant man-eating plant is amusing.

Warning:  While there are plenty of photos of the entire show, I am frankly mostly only sort-of probably interested in the ones that contain my personal child whom I produced after seventeen hours of labor.  I think there were other people in the play too, but I don't know any of them, so the following pics are mostly just because Ben is in them:

 And....having said that - here's one without Ben in it.

 Mr Mushnik and Seymour

The guy who played Seymour was very good.

But Ben was awesome.

I'm not biased or anything.

 Presenting Audrey II - a strange and interesting plant.

 The ladder was quite talented and convincing in its role.

I really believed it was a ladder, you know?

 The guy who played the dentist was exceptionally talented. 

Ben isn't even in this photo but I'm posting this here anyway,

 that's how good he was.

Eavesdropping

 A nefarious plan develops

Singing his adorable little heart out

Dancing his adorable little heart out

I like to think he was waving at me in the audience right here.

 Discovering a dastardly deed

 WHAT?!?!  You mean the plant opens up???

 WHAT?!?!?  You mean you hid money inside the plant that opens up and clearly has teeth but I'm not going to notice that because clearly it's not dangerous!

 *CHOMP*

There comes a moment in every mother's life when she should watch her child get eaten by a giant carnivorous herb.   There's something deeply gratifying about the experience.

 Seventeen hours of labor.

 Full cast

That guy in the suit was really good!

Pierce!

Katie decided she wanted to get her ears pierced.  I had told her she could do it when she turned 12 but she didn't really want to.  I have had my ears pierced three separate times in my life.  Each time they became infected and grew closed.  Emily has also had her ears pierced twice and both times they have gotten infected and closed. We just have super sensitive ear lobes in this family.  And apparently fat earlobes as well.  I've had to shell out extra bucks for both girls to have the extra long posts for "fleshy" earlobes.  In fact, the first store we went to last night did not have posts long enough for her ears and we had to go to a different store. 

 

I'm putting both girls on an ear lobe exercise regimen starting next week.

 

 She was a tad apprehensive.

 

I had, after all, told her it was going to hurt a lot - worse than a shot because it's not a nice thin hypodermic needle going through that chunky ear lobe. 

 

And there was that one moment right after the earring went through and the puncturing device got stuck and the puncturing person couldn't get it loose from the puncturee's ear and I realized she was correct to be apprehensive.  Yeah, that was fun.

 

But she handled it like a trooper and was very pleased with the results!