Botanical Gardens Chiles and Chocolate...

Today, since Jasmine was off school and I cannot effectively work with her around, we went to the Botanical Gardens where they were having the annual "Chiles and Chocolate Festival". Zillions of other people had the same idea... many of whom had never seen a cactus before:))- Taking endless photos of the cacti:)) I had never been there during the festival and didn't know it was so "sophisticated". Chocolatiers from all over the country were there! Of course, Jasmine was in heaven because each booth had small samples. There were amazing chocolate towers, delicately decorated, very pretty. The chocolates were inside in the AC and outside were all the gourmet chilis and chili products of every kind. We ended up buying only one little chocolate which was a 1" cube intricately decorated like a little purse, and placed in a little purse shaped box. 8.00!!!:) My only concern was getting it home before it liquified in the heat. We bought it for Miss Adrianna who is the office manager at Jazzy's new school- Imagine Tempe. She is a total fashionista, always wearing very hip funky clothes, boots and designer purses. She is incredibly friendly and helpful, has a strong "Joisy" accent, and has really helped Jazzy (and me) adjust to her new school. We also visited the Monarch exhibit which holds 800 Monarch butterflies, and walked around for a short time, had lunch and watched some Brazilian martial artists/dancers. Our visit was cut short because Jasmine was misbehaving so badly. Perfect beautiful day outside. 70 degrees. The Botanical Garden always has all kinds of new artwork/sculptures every few months. This time they had huge sculptures representing each season. Here is the Summer statue.

Looking at the monarchs with her magnifying glass!

Miss Grumpy ready to go home and take a nap before going to ballet class:)