One of the things that excite us about Melbourne is the outdoor life. Even before we moved here, the hubby and I were talking about going to Melbourne parks every other weekend. So last weekend, we made a visit to the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, specifically for the Ian Potter Foundation Children’s Garden.
We also decided to be brave and bring our DSLR with us. I don’t know about you, but I find it so challenging to lug around a bulky camera while handling a preschooler, an infant, a bursting diaper bag and a stroller. We tried doing that several times back in Malaysia and always gave up the photo-taking option. But this time we were determined to get some shots, and, boy, were we glad we went ahead with it! We’ve got so many pretty pictures! So, please be prepared for a photo-heavy post ahead as we really went trigger happy with the camera!
I think there are several entrances to the Royal Botanic Gardens, but the entrance we went through brought us straight to this big big tree. There are lots of similar big, beautiful trees like this everywhere in the park.
It was a very cold and windy Sunday. But lucky for us, the sun came out for a little while when we were there!
Sand pit! If you follow me on Instagram, you would know that Amy recently overcame her fear of sand (thank you Peppa Pig), and, in fact, went to the other extreme of loving it A LOT. So when she saw this big sand pit, she jumped for joy and jumped right into it!
Sand heavennnnnnnn.
The Aussie baby on the right literally speed-crawled towards Amy when his mom put him down in the sand pit. He looked up at Amy with the most adorable eyes and the biggest drooling toothless grin, enough to melt anybody! But Amy was like, er, okay… what do I do with you?
Sigh. I need to send her to playschool soon. Socialise, Amy, socialise!
The Children’s Garden is like a little small garden within the Royal Botanic Gardens. It’s fenced up with a child-safe gate at its entrance, and it’s designed to let little hands explore nature. Besides the sand pit, there are lots of different types of plants and flowers for children to see, and also a little tiny river and pond. There are also suggested activities for your kids to do there, which you can check out here.
We found an elephant statue hidden within the Bamboo Forest, and kinda forced Amy up on it. She was actually quite scared (and it was really hard to carry her up because she is SO heavy), but was game enough to do it for a photo.
Picnics are not encouraged within the Children’s Garden, as space is limited and we should allow kids to run, jump, play and explore instead of taking up a big spot for picnics. But it’s OK. We just have to walk out to go back into the Royal Botanic Gardens, and there are lots of beautiful spaces for picnics.
Great for photo taking too hehe.
There are lots of other attractions there, and apparently you can even see black swans at the lake! Sadly we had to rush off that day, but we will definitely be back!
Love,
Natalie