Flowers and sunshine

After a week of being indoors with sick babes i felt the need to get out of the house and I think they were too.

We drove to the botanic gardens and took a stroll. Harper was dressed warmly sitting in the carrier on Andres back, Kanye was in his chair.

It was warm in the sun, the air cool but still. Andre took the boys to the playground while I stopped to get coffee.

We didn't stay long as harper started coughing. He's still a little chesty and snotty but a lot better than previous days.

On the way back to the car harper fell asleep so with it warming more we continued to walk to town to let him sleep.
Marley, in a panic of not finding me stepped on a flower which upset him more so I took the opportunity to make it a lesson in taking care of his surroundings.

I talked about how he needs to look after his environment- the plants and animals. I asked him if he had any ideas as to what we could do.

I suggested that we could pick up rubbish on our walk in to town. We talked about how rubbish can cause animals and plants to get sick and die. I told him that sometimes little animals get stuck in rubbish and can't get out of it. As we passed the river we looked at the rubbish in there and discussed that fish, eels and ducks can get sick from rubbish in their homes.

Marley really took it in and was talking quite proudly when he was picking up rubbish on the way that he was taking care of the environment. He understood it all. He even stated at one point that he hates plastic because it makes animals die. I taught him about polystyrene and how it's bad for the environment.

He even chased rubbish in a bid to pick it up as the wind started to blow. I said i was proud of him for the work he did. I washed his wee hands and put some sanitizer on just in case.

He is a member of the kids kiwi conservation club and next year he'll be old enough to attend the camps and days they run through the department of conservation so I want to keep up his knowledge of it.

He told me he's going to tell people to put rubbish in the bin not on the ground.

He knows about deciduous and evergreen trees so after picking up the rubbish we talked about the buds on the deciduous trees that there were new flowers and leaves inside, he was fascinated.

We stopped in town and got the boys some lunch. While they were waiting there's a stage/seating area that they have painted so it's a giant chalkboard. Mar grabbed some chalk and wrote his name.

I popped in to see my mama in law but harper had had enough so we left to come home.

Spent the afternoon playing with the boys, they were tired and grumpy so early bed tonight. But otherwise a beautiful day.