Scarecrow Hunting

Yesterday was one of our last shorts-and-tee-shirt days until spring, so I took the kids to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. Every October they decorate the place with dozens of scarecrows, all with different names and themes, and every year we go there to see them. There is usually a 'green' one made from recyclable materials, a few gardening scarecrows, and many traditional ones incorporating spiders, pumpkins and crows. Eli was a bit concerned when I told them we were going to see scarecrows. "Dey scare me??", he asked with a very worried look on his face. I assured him that scarecrows are designed to scare away crows, not people. There were a few that he didn't enjoy ("I no like dat one.") because they presented something he deemed 'scary', but most of the time he ran around trying to find new ones to look at.

After our tour of the garden, we ended up at the Children's Garden where I let the kids run wild. Eli was disappointed I didn't bring his baggies so he could run through the fountains. Due to the cold weather we've had in the last few weeks, I was sure they'd already turned the water off, but I was wrong. Maddux did better than usual, but still required some reigning in from time to time. The kids had a blast pretending to cook some rocks on hopscotch stones. Most of the time, Maddux carried around a leaf and waved it in the air like it was a hand-held flag. The poor girl is teething so bad; her hand never left her mouth again today. On a positive note, all of her scabs are gone as of nap time yesterday - she is officially mended after only one week.

One last story: we were walking through the Children's Gardens when we came upon a scarecrow dressed as Jim Henson. A mannequin head with dark hair and a beard stood behind a stage where he was manipulating two puppets. Eli took one look at him and said, "Look, Mommy. Dat sayer-crow is Jesus!"