Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Groot-Bijgaarden

On GOOD Friday Karen and I thought it would be a GOOD idea to get our kids out and let them run among flowers in celebration of Spring and of Easter. I packed a picnic lunch and we drove 20 minutes down the road to the Groot-Bijgaarden castle. Brady even brought Connor a twin Easter bunny. Connor loved their matching bunnies!
It turned into a lovely warm sunshine day and the kids had an absolute ball throwing and chasing plastic Easter eggs, smelling the flowers, chasing each other and climbing the playground equipment.
The one thing they wouldn’t do was sit still long enough for us to actually snap decent photos. Oh me. I think it is just impossible for two-year-olds to sit, look up, and smile at the camera. But that didn’t keep us from trying! Be sure to check out my sweet girl's tights in some of these shots. It doesn't take a second for her to roll in the mud and get filthy!
The setting was like a storybook with the one million bulbs touted by the brochure, popping up everywhere. Supposedly this place is trying to make a move to be another Keukenhof Gardens with all the tulips, but in Belgium not Holland. From what I hear it doesn’t yet hold a candle to the original. It was a wonderful warm up for us nevertheless! We head to Keukenhof in a few weeks.
The best part of the visit was how much fun Brady and Connor had throwing, chasing, and "hunting" Easter eggs. I think they could have gone on and on for hours. After nearly 3 hours of hard core play we peeled Brady and Connor away and they both fell asleep on the car ride home. As we were leaving the Groot-Bijgaarden with full bellies from our picnic of bread, cheese, tomatoes/basil/mozzarella we were thinking how smart we were to bring lunch to save money instead of eating at the overpriced cafĂ© inside. But as we trotted out the entrance gate we saw a big sign we overlooked upon entering….it read “Absolutely No Picnics!” Oops. As Karen said, it was the very best illegal picnic we have ever had. And definitely one of our finest days out in Belgium!Click here for more photos of the Groot-Bijgaarden (full album)

1 comment:

Dallas said...

I love Connor's Easter dress. It reminds me of the classic little dresses that my Mom would put me in when I was little...the peter pan collar and smocking on the front. :)