March trip to MBG

We met Arline for our March visit to MBG.  

My first picture is the cacti in the Linnean house.

Still some flowers left on some of the Camellias

Maggie's chair is back in the Ottoman garden, you can see she's very happy!!!

No, it was NOT as cold as Ben and Arline would have you believe!!!!!

There were loads of daffodils flowering, all different kinds.  

I loved these with very long straight trumpets

The pasque flowers were absolutely beautiful

Osteospermum in the Temperate House

Wish I had a garden like this.....

Waterfall in the Climatron

I wish my hellebores looked like this!!!!

My monthly photo of "the tree".  Arline wouldn't walk round to the Japanese garden to our other tree

Ben and Maggie!!!!!

Spring break trip to Kansas City

I took the kids to Kansas City to see the Pompeii exhibit at Union Station.  Xavier went with us, we hadn't seen him in a while.  We stayed at a hotel that had a water park and the kids did that when we got there.  They had so much fun.  The hotel was really quite a dump though, they are renovating it, but obviously hadn't got to our room yet!!!!

Union Station in Kansas City is quite an impressive building

This is the ceiling in the foyer

The Pompeii exhibit was great, and the big plus was that it was really quiet.  It was really amazing how many artifacts they had and how advanced the Romans were, the elite really had a great life!!!

This was a pair of floor length candlesticks and folding legs for a table

This cast iron skillet on the left looks just like on in my kitchen!!!!

Apparently doormice were a delicacy for the elite and they used containers like this to breed and keep them.  It was designed to make them hibernate and grow fat!!!!

Money bank and money....

Very cool oil lamp

Statue 

Gladiator helmets

Casts of inhabitants

Poor dog was chained up

Man crouched with cloak pulled over his head

Snow for Spring break

After having a much warmer than normal winter, the cold weather moved in just in time for Spring break for the kids!!!!  We had snow on Friday night and then again on Sunday night.  I took these pictures when I got to work on Monday morning.

Orchid show at night

Arline and I went to the orchid show. They had a couple of evenings where they were lit up this year. It was pretty nice to see them again, but I think that they show better in the daylight on the whole.  Maybe you can just take better pictures with the natural light

Update on construction project

The new construction is going in fits and starts, but doing OK.  We have had the insulation done, so should be much warmer back in the family room now

The bricklayers have almost finished the brick.  They ran out of brick with about 3 rows left to do on the west side

We decided to get the hole above the fireplace filled in while they were doing drywall in the family room.  I think it will look much better and one day we'll forget completely that they had their TV up there with an unfinished wall behind it!!!

The drywall in the bedroom is now finished and they are going to start putting the trim up next.  Floors next week