Totally Terrific Treehouses

Jeff had the day off today, so we drove south of Philly and visited a fantastic arboretum.

There was a pond with turtles, lots of easy trails, a butterfly house, and 10 treehouses scattered along the main trail. Everything was made for kids to crawl into, touch, play with...awesome. The "path" was even made for kids...just signs in the woods pointing you in the general direction...but kids were free to run in and out of the trees and through the big fields. It was a paradise for little legs.

Treehouse #1: The 3 little pigs. You climb up and find a house of bricks, a house of straw, and a house of sticks. And 3 little pigs made of Spanish moss on top of the brick house and a wolf made of Japanese cedar leaves on the house of sticks. Very very cool.

Inspired by a fallen tree...through this tunnel you visited the "Imagination Station", with a stage and dress-up box, a fireman's pole, and other playground-y things.

Treehouse #2:

Treehouse #3: My favorite. Mikey liked this one too. Inside the "fort" part, there was a tennis racket and an old time radio and posters and old license plates. Just like the tree house/club house you dreamed of as a kid.

A random wigwam we found off a path in the woods. There was a whole campsite set up like the native Americans would have lived in. The kids loved it. This is also where Jeff found a tick climbing up his leg. I spent the rest of the time in the woods looking over my kids like an ape.

Treehouse #4: This tree house was shaped like a giant drum. The pathway was railed with guitar strings. Behind it was a little clearing with a whole tea party set up...wooden table and chairs, wooden fireplace, an entire little house set up in the woods. I didn't get any pictures of it...which is amazing, since I took dozens of pictures.

Inside the drum were instruments! Lily playing the xylophone.

Andrew rocks out on the steel drum.

Even Michael had fun with the interchangeable xylophone tubes.

Treehouse #5: Made to imitate a spider's web. This one was kind of scary...but Andrew braved it and got to the top. It was very modern and cool looking (with a slippery metal ladder)

An exploration part that had shovels and magnifying glasses so you could look for bugs or examine the tree rings on all the stumps or whatever. Andrew strikes a silly pose.

There was also a huge vegetable garden that the kids could wander through. Come to think of it, this park is kind of random...but very very fun.

Treehouse #6: This tree had strings hanging down to a platform. When you pulled on the strings...they rang cowbells strung up on branches high above. Cool.

Butterfly house...obviously.

It is time for Michael to walk. He didn't want to be contained in the stroller, but he didn't want to crawl on the rough wood and pavement. WALK ALREADY!

Treehouse #7: This was the kids' favorite. We played here for a long time. Lily loved the nest in front with the giant wooden eggs, and Andrew liked climbing up into the birdhouse.

Okay, wait. That's only 7 treehouses. As I look at the map, they also counted the Imagination Station, the tea party place, and Thoreau's workshop(an exact replica of Thoreau's cabin by Walden Pond) as treehouses. Like I said...random.

All in all, a successful outing and lots of fun!