Ladew Gardens' children's day 2016: Nature! Art! Play!

On September 10th I attended Ladew Garden's annual children's day, this year it was titled "Nature! Art! Play!". I was an official vendor/"station" at the event, and I was placed in the Koi pond where I interacted with children (and grown up guests too) and told them some facts about the Koi fish. :) It was wonderful! I had an absolutely great day.

Ladew Gardens is a beautiful topiary garden and I highly recommend anybody who lives in Maryland (or is traveling through it) to stop by for an afternoon.

 Here's a link to their website. 

http://www.ladewgardens.com/

 The image above with the full view of the pond features me in my Rio Red tail (which we used for a separate photoshoot at the gardens before the event), but I attended Nature! Art! Play! in my Bali Breeze tail, at the request of Ladew to appear artsy and exotic. :)

Here's a screenshot of the website where I am listed as an official vendor/"Station":

(Click to enlarge)

It all feels very official to me, and as my first "big" event, it was great to see my name on the website. I feel like things are really moving forward for me in my mermaid career, and I'm very thankful. :)

Here are some photos we took in the Koi pond!

They have a ton of beautiful Koi fish in the pond, some of them are HUGE! Stephen was given a cup of Koi treats to toss in and share with the kids so they could feed and interact the fish too. The fish really did swarm sometimes! It was really fun to interact with them.

Talk about a big fish in a small pond. The fish were a bit scared of me at first when I entered the pond, but once they saw I wasn't a threat they swam near me with no problems. There was even a turtle in the pond that let me handle him and show him off to the children, much to their delight. He was dubbed "George".

Fishy face!

After awhile of being at the front of the pond interacting with the children (mostly spouting koi facts on a loop when not answering questions about mermaids) the fish started associating me with the Koi treats Stephen was throwing in, and they became quite friendly. A few even bumped into me! :)

Also, the wonderful team at Ladew agreed to let me take a photoshoot in their large fountain called "The Great Bowl" before the event began. I selected my red tail because I thought it'd show up nicely in the fountain and go well with the green surrounding. It turned out perfectly! It was a wonderful oppertunity and I had a great time swimming around in the fountain for the photoshoot too, hahaha. :)

Just a clarification, I do have a pre-arranged special photography contract with Ladew Gardens in exchange for offering my mermaid services volunteer, and I was granted special permissions for professional model photography and commercial image use. Typically, Ladew Topiary Gardens prohibits professional individual and family portrait photography, and commercial photography of the gardens must be arranged in advanced. Here is Ladew's website page regarding their photo policy. I wanted to share this in advance so nobody gets in trouble thinking it'd be a good place for a shoot. 

All in all, it was an absolutely wonderful experience. I had a GREAT time and I was very popular with everyone: the children, the parents, and even the staff at Ladew! Everyone was so nice, I felt so welcome and at home. What a delightful day and a great experience. <3  Thanks to my wonderful friend Sue for organizing it and inviting me, she's a sweetheart and it was a pleasure to work with her. I look forward to working with Ladew again next year. :)

Love,

Mermaid Gipsy