Our playgroup visited Longwood Gardens today. While I love every visit to Longwood, it's always a bit of a challenge keeping the rambunctious, excited preschoolers from interrupting the more - ahem - patrician visitors.
It's telling that I always dress for mess (as I leave covered in dirt and water and other bits of nature), while some of the more mature visitors sport fancy jewelry, heels, and bedazzled finery.* I'd feel much less confident about our visits to the garden if it didn't make such an effort to cater to children with it's two children's gardens and three treehouses and specialty children's maps. Clearly someone wants us here, right?
Take the energy of your average four-year-old and multiply it by nine. Presto! Fun and chaos, and just a few moments of rule-breaking. Since I'm such a rule-follower at heart, I'm going to take a minute to rewrite a few of the garden's rules to better suit the needs of the preschool set:
1. Feel free to scamper up our topiary bushes, especially after playing hide-and-seek. You'll find the branches particularly accessible for shorter children. Watch in amazement as they climb to the top of the carefully sculpted bush and poke their head out - it's a photo-worthy moment, for sure!**
2. Please, help yourself to picnic lunches at our many accommodating benches, chairs, and other whimsical seating areas. You're welcome to visit our picnic area, but you'll have to hike back to your car and drive there. We realize that's essentially a disaster in the making, so really, take a seat and have a snack. We insist.
3. If you'd like to get from point A to point B, may we suggest running? The faster you run, the faster you'll arrive. See how many other guests you can outrace - that is, if you're paying enough attention to see other guests in the walkway. There's a lot to take in, and it's awfully hard work concentrating on running.
4. When you leave, don't forget to have your hand, forehead, cheek, other cheek, stomach, neck, leg, arm, and ear stamped for re-entry. You'll need each and every stamp to get back in. Don't forget that ear stamp!
Of course, I'm being silly here, but I would like to point out that there is an insane rule about eating only (purchased food) in the cafe or in the picnic area which is outside the garden itself. I break this rule each and every time we visit, and justify it to myself with the knowledge that (a) we almost always buy something in the cafe anyway, since the kids equate Longwood with cookies in the cafe and (b) I'm pretty sure whatever aesthetic damage is done by our handful of nuts on the child-sized chairs is nothing in comparison to the blood-curdling screams of two children whose blood sugar has crashed more precipitously than our economy.
*Really, I don't know what to call those shirts with sequins or other fancy things attached. I pretty much live in cotton t-shirts and am really dressin' fancy if my shirt doesn't have stains or rips.
**I don't think this happened, but then again, it may have.
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