A Date with My Daughter

After church yesterday, Dad and son went one way while daughter and I went another.
My camera was left behind so I will try to recount some of the moments here.
We left church and had a few minutes before McD's would be serving lunch. So we went a mile away to see some horses with their fillies. The babies were so cute with their knobby knees. They were running and kicking all over the place. There was one that was so tiny it had to be only a couple days old, if that. We walked around the horse farm visiting the pregnant mommas, the daddies (one was very jealous and wanted all of our attention for himself) and then back around to the babies.
At McDonald's we both got a ranch chicken snack wrap to go. Passing back by the horse farm there was a huge group of horses we had not seen the first time. Little girl said "Look they're having family time!"
Next it was off to the Children's Garden, where we ate out picnic lunch on tot sized tables. Little girl loved this. Then we explored the gardens. While there was not much by way of flowers there was plenty to see. We had fun in the Maze and stomped on the chimes to make "beautiful" music. The real reason I wanted to go to the gardens was the butterflies. I had posted a couple of weeks ago about wanting to go to the Meijer gardens in GR but never went. And since I did not have much of a response for others wanting to go with I decided I would stay local and check out the butterflies here for FREE! I was very thankful to find that we had not missed them. There were many butterflies flitting all about us. Chrysalis awaiting their immersion and some butterflies that were still drying their wings as they had just emerged. We found eggs and caterpillars, bananas and tree frogs. I had a few butterflies that would stay on my finger. DD thought she wanted to hold one but as the opportunity presented itself she declined, when it was on her shirt she wanted it off IMMEDIATELY. Little girl and I had so much fun with the butterflies we decided to come back again today with my son and nephew. They thought it was pretty cool too. They both learned quickly how to get the butterflies on the ends on their fingers and learned the trick for keeping them there (dipping their fingers in nectar.)
After the butterflies we went back outside and found a pond with some frogs on it. She felt it was her job to call to the frogs, "Ribbet, RIBBET, ribbet" When we would see one she would say, "See it was because I called it."
Since it was a gorgeous day we finished our date off with two ice cream cones; chocolate and vanilla twists. Delicious.
It was awesome spending one on one time with her. We talked about what made her happy, what made her sad and things that made her giggle (trains, take note Uncle G), what made her feel loved, we said I love you more times then I could count. We had such a grand time, just girls no boys. I even got a "Thank you mommy for our date." How sweet is that?