Beautiful Girlhood

It's a rainy Sunday afternoon. My dreams of sunshine and planting pots of basil and mint, and putting out a glorious red gerbera daisy flanked by freshly purchased red striped chair cushions on my balcony will have to wait. But it's a great day for blogging! I had such a great time with Liz two weeks ago. Here are the pics to prove it! Here we are at a Chinese restaurant after church on Sunday--right before I drove back to Ohio.   

The day before we had started at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids. http://www.meijergardens.org/  See this picture of the largest glass tropical garden conservatory in Michigan? That's where we went! We stepped into this paradise of lush, exotic plants and lovely warmth. As if that wasn't enough, each week during March and April five hundred butterfly larvae are imported from Africa, Asia and Central & South America! It was like hundreds of flower petals floating by on gentle wafts of air!   

This is a great place to visit and we highly recommend it!                                                                               

This blue butterfly is the "Common Morpho." (photo credit: http://www.focusfoto.com/Butterflies.html)  Make a fist with each hand and touch your thumbs together. Now you know the size of this butterfly! Its one of the largest butterflies in the world, and it was our favorite. 

After we spent about three hours there we were hungry and went to a Chicago-style pizza house where I found out Liz can eat like a bird--and birds eat 3 or 4 times their body weight, don't they?? :)  We talked about her diving for swim team, and this cool weight-lifting class she's enjoying. She might look into studying to be a physical therapy assistant. She's got the smarts and ambition for it!

Then we went shopping. The neices all like this part of the Beautiful Girlhood weekend, and I've heard their moms like it, too! Imagine the luxury of trying on clothes without siblings banging on the dressing room doors and telling you to "hurry up!" It's a win-win for everyone, and I enjoy the time, too, now that I'm an old lady with no little ones or budget to guard and hover over on these trips. What's that, Brooke and Lisa? You want a Beautiful Girlhood weekend, too?

I discovered a new favorite author this weekend, too, and got the family needing to hear the rest of the audiobook version of "The Tale of Desperaux." I also heard one of Kate DiCamillo's other books on CD--"The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane." Oh, wow! You've got to hear it! And, at the writers conference, I got to hear her in person, along with many other interesting authors. I met an editor who requested a proposal, and I got some good tips on blogging. So now I have to get to work on those--but I'd rather go back to Liz's!