Spring here means Dallas Blooms at the Arboretum. When we visited recently, my first comment as we walked in the front entrance was, "I feel like I've just stepped into an impressionist painting."

It was a glorious spring day, and Luci Belle and I got to enjoy the beauty with my mom, my two nieces Ashley and Maddie, my nephew Zachary, and our friend Terrica {who got us all in for free with her season pass - suhweet!}.

My daughter was tossed around like a doll between her cousins. Zachary kept kicking his shoes at people and was being so rambuncious that we practically forced him rolling down the hill above the lake to blow off some energy. Soon enough, all the older kids were hungry, so I offered them the only snack I had in the diaper bag - carob spirulina energy nuggets. I told them they were "chocolate bites" - mwahaha. But they were not fooled. They each stuffed one in their mouth and then promptly spit them out all over the perfectly-manicured grass so it looked like there were brown turds scattered all around us. Nice.

All carob turds aside, though, it turned out to be a lovely day. An exhausting one, too!

Luci Belle with my niece Ashley / me and my niece Maddie