For our last trip of the summer, J, K, my mother  and I went to the Hershey Gardens, located near the Hotel Hershey.   www.hersheygardens.org.  J was there when she was younger, but this was K's first time visiting. 

The gardens were created by Mr. Hershey in 1937 after being asked to sponsor a national rosarium in Washington D.C.  Mr. Hershey decided to build his own botanical garden so that the public could come and enjoy it.  Since its inception, the garden has grown to a 23 acre garden, including an Italian Rose Garden, a Japanese garden, an arboretum, and the children's garden.

My girls both enjoy the children's garden, especially the butterfly house.  The butterfly house is an enclosed space with plants and tons of butterflies!  Sometimes they will even land on you.  You sometimes have to watch where you are walking so you don't step on any.  You can also see different chrysalises and cocoons and even some recently hatched butterflies.  K enjoyed carrying around the butterfly guide given to visitors which helped us identify the different butterflies.  The butterfly house is only open until September 12 this year, so hurry in to see them!  Their other favorite is the gigantic Hershey Kiss sculptures that squirt water at random times!

The children's garden also features an alphabet garden, with a plant representing each letter of the alphabet, a sundial that uses your own shadow to create the time, a place to learn fractions using a chocolate bar relief in the concrete (why wasn't learning fractions like that in school?), a bird blind with the perfect tree for kids to climb, and other fun things.  My kids both just love being outside, so even when we were finished in the children's garden, they enjoyed smelling the roses in the Italian garden and just looking at all the different flowers and trees.  J even recalled some things she had learned about the different trees from her nature walks at summer camp. 

Right now, there is also a display called "For the Birds" which runs until September 26.  It's a neat display of over 20 different birdhouses, many made with recycled materials.  They range in look from all natural materials to eclectic (a caboose, one covered in seashells, one carved as an bearded man with a hat).  Visitors are given a ballot at the entrance to the gardens and you can vote for your favorite!  We all enjoyed this, and took our time choosing our favorites.  We finished our day by having a picnic lunch at the tables located just outside the garden entrance. 

I think some folks will wonder if their kids will enjoy anything outside of the children's garden, but mine really did.  If you have outdoorsy kids, they will really enjoy this experience.

School starts Monday!  Although I won't be contributing as much to the blog then, but I plan a "wrap-up" entry for the summer.  Consider it something of a "what we did on our summer vacation" essay.  Thanks for reading!