The Garden in Spring
The weather was socal gorgeous --clear blue skies, low 70s, ever so slight breeze-- so it seemed like a perfect day to check out the spring blooms at the Huntington. Of course, a visit is always improved by a nice lunch at the tea room! Because Bobby had to work, Georgie, my mom and I made a girls day of it.

The weather and gardens did not disappoint. Truthfully, it could not have been a more gorgeous day. I was so glad that I decided to bring along my big camera. I've gotten so lazy about it lately. I try to avoid doing the iphone pix just because, even though they tend to look great on the phone, they're really not good quality. But I do tend to rely on my purse camera a lot. It takes really good pix, for a point and shoot, and its always sitting there in my purse right at the tip of my fingers!!! but it cannot compare to an SLR with a nice lens :-)

Tea was awesome as always! I do love tea at the Huntington. G surprised me this time by trying the salmon tea sandwiches and really liking them! I gave her a bit of the hummus and caviar with crackers but she wasn't at all impressed. And, of course, she still thinks actual tea (even with a couple cubes of sugar on it) is gross. I think its cute the way she is willing to try new foods and isn't a mac & cheese chicken nugget only kind of kid.

Anyway, it was a lovely day to snap pix of my girlie :-)

 The Chinese garden is so beautiful. I wish my photo skills were better.

I'm always asking G to make a pouty face for pix and usually it just makes her get a huge smile... finally caught this good one.

OK, this one's weird I know. Georgie was looking at the fountain and I was taking a couple pix of her looking into the water when I noticed the skeleton guy in the background. It was some college kids who were photographing the reflection of the face in the water, probably for a class project or something?? G didn't notice it right away but when she finally did she was intrigued.

Huntington Library
with Grandma :-)  My mom hadn't been in many years so we made a day of it. Just the girls! I built up some anticipation in Georgie by showing her pictures of Pinkie and Blue Boy... who doesn't love them, right? Georgie was fascinated by the sad story of Pinkie who died at the age of 12, probably from the flu. It brought up a good discussion about how lucky we are to live during a time where there are good medicines and doctors. Art history is full of death and sadness some of which is pretty heavy for a five year old.

Anyway, we'd booked the tea for lunch but we got there a little early so we checked out some of the galleries. Its funny because we've many times in the last year or so since we've had our membership and we've spent a surprisingly small amount of time in the galleries. The gardens are so beautiful you can spend all your time there. We got G an audio headset and explained how it worked and how to locate the "kids" audios. G was really into it and would search around to find the two digit codes, punch the numbers in and listen intently. I'm not sure how much of it she was really picking up but she was having a good time doing it :-)

Finally, it was time for tea! Georgie loves tea and the Rose Garden Tea Room is pretty great. After a lovely lunch we moved on to the gardens. It was a bit early in the year so not everything was in bloom but they are beautiful no matter the season. We managed to cover most of the property--there are still a few gardens I've never seen--before we were all exhausted and it was getting close to closing time.

Wonderful day!

After looking at Pinkie and Blue Boy, Georgie was wandering the European gallery looking for more kids audios when all of a sudden she gave out a quiet shriek! She'd found a painting of Georgiana Cavendish... she was so tickled that they shared a name! She immediately asked me to take her picture in front of her namesake.

The gardens are filled with endless photo opportunities... next time I might have to bring my big camera so I can get some really great photos.

 The camelias were one of the few flowers in bloom in mid February.

 Breathtaking...

 G loves her Grandma!

We always spend a lot of time in the Chinese garden. Its so beautiful... the kind of place that makes you want to sit for awhile.

 Georgie's ferocious face :-)

The cherry blossoms are in bloom by now... time to go back!

Huntington Library: Santa Days
We hadn't been able to use our Huntington Library membership for awhile. When I saw they were having a special Santa thing just for members I thought, heck yeah! I almost backed out the morning of because it was pouring down rain. But, I'd already told G we were going to play hookie so I figured we'd give it a go. Plus it gave G a chance to wear her much beloved rain boots.

First stop: tea! I love to go to tea. I don't go as often as I'd like. G likes it too. Its wonderful that G is getting to an age where we can do these types of things, just the two of us, and enjoy a nice conversation. She's quite the little talker. We discussed her friends at school, her current fav movie Sofia The First, and other things she enjoys. And of course we had tea (which for G is actually pink lemonade) and lunch. The tea house at Huntington in that it is a full on lunch buffet. They have these delicious little salmon, cream cheese and cucumber creations that are to. die. for! G went for egg salad and did a bit of damage on the sweets. Yum.

After that we were off to the Santa activities. I truly love G's pairing of the holiday skirt with her purple boots... adorable!

Bob Baker's Marionettes were there doing a show. The operation of the puppets was quite complex. They were at the same time fascinating and creepy :-)


G loved them!

Even after a big lunch G still had room for a Christmas cookie.

G decided that she had a question for Santa... which reindeer is his favorite? G and Santa had quite a serious conversation about it. I haven't the slightest idea what was being said but G seemed to be listening very carefully.

He then leaned over and whispered something in her ear. Unfortunately, I have no idea what he said because when I asked G about it later she said she didn't remember.

I'm not really going for a record or anything but I'm pretty sure this represented G's 6th visit with Santa this year :-)

By that point the rain had finally stopped and G immediately switched out her shoes for something she found more fashionable.

A perfect 10 Mommy-Daughter day :-)