Devonian Botanical Gardens; J. Crew Factory seahorse print City shorts
Shorts & top, J. Crew Factory; shoes, Tory Burch; bag, MbMJ

I love visiting the Devonian Botanical Gardens, and the location (conveniently close to home) makes it perfect for a half-day family trip. I’m partial to the Japanese garden, but I love the riots of flowers happening everywhere this time of year. The kids were much taken with the butterfly house. OK, mostly Luka, but he was enthusiastic enough for two. (Teodora was taken … mostly with her shoes. And some dirt she mistook for playground sand, once she escaped the confines of her prison stroller.)

Devonian Botanical Gardens
The Japanese garden at Devonian

The gardens were packed with moms and tots, which I guess is to be expected on a random Tuesday in August. (Actually, not so random. First Tuesday of every month is half price admission. Thrifty adventures, it’s how we roll.) All parent minds think alike, I guess.

Devonian Botanical Gardens; J. Crew Factory seahorse print City shorts
Tranquility (when pictured without the sound of a hundred kids running around in the background)

All the pretty flowers:

Devonian Botanical Gardens
(yes, I have favourites)

The weather was gorgeous, but hot. Hotter than Satan’s sweaty armpit. If I look slightly disheveled and mildly sun-stroked, it’s because I was. Tent-y cotton tops, for the win.

Devonian Botanical Gardens; J. Crew Factory seahorse print City shorts
Slightly sun-stroked …

10 Comments on Staycation Adventures: Devonian Botanical Gardens

  1. Gorgeous pics! I think that’s the first time I’ve read your children’s name, very sweet. We normally spell it Theodora in the UK. Luka, Teodora, Adina seem Polish maybe to me? Or am I wildly off & that’s how it’s spelt it Canada?!

    • No, no, you’re right. My husband and I are both originally from the Balkans area; there, Teodora is Theodora, and Luka is Luke. We wanted to pick “traditional” names that still worked here, and weren’t too unusual or hard to spell.

      Miss T was almost an Emilia, but close friends had a little girl shortly before us, and named her Amelia, and it was just too phonetically close. She also almost got a middle name (we don’t do middle names in the Old Country) – Alice – but we ultimately decided that it was too much of a mouthful together with our (really, really long) last name.

      Sorry for tl;dr … I just love talking baby names 😉

      • Ah ok yes I was thinking Eastern European so there we go! Elodie’s best friend is Emilia. Amelia was the number one most registered name in the UK for 2013. Oliver for boys. I know tonnes of Oliver’s but no Amelias funnily enough. I spent hours pouring over the baby name stats both times as I wanted under used names seeing as our surname is Smith, I.e. Really common!

        • We have the opposite problem of a really long, hard to pronounce last name. Luka was a slam-dunk because it’s so short and easy. Teodora is on the long side, but we figured she’d end up going by a nickname anyway.
          I love your kids’ names too. Classic and lovely.

  2. You look lovely! And I love your children’s names! Do you pronounce Teadora with a “th” sound or with a “t”? Is it Tay-adora or Tea-adora? It’s so unusual but super pretty. I love that in a name. Luka is a great one too!

    • Thank you! Teodora is the East European version of Theodora. (There is no “th” equivalent in our languages.) So if you substitute a “t” for “th” in the latter, you got the pronunciation down. It’s, like, Teh-odora.

      It’s okay, we get lots of “come again’s?” when we tell people her name 😉

      She’s usually Tea (as in Tea Leone, I can never get the accent on my Mac) or Teddy. Or Baby Dora, to her brother.

        • Yeah, it started when I was pregnant and we tried to explain the whole there-is-a-baby-in-there-and-she’s-coming-to-stay business, and he couldn’t pronounce her name but LOVES Dora the Explorer and … the rest is history. My husband is really partial to the nickname Téa, but I think she’s probably going to be Baby Dora until she’s 25.