I have blogged about Annmarie Gardens before, as they have an awesome fairy house event every summer, and we try to go when we can. This summer, though, we didn’t go to Annmarie Gardens to look for fairy houses in the woods. Instead, we went to another annual event they hold, Mud Day! My husband wasn’t thrilled with an entire event dedicated to mud, but all three girls loved the idea. This is a one day event only, and advanced timed-entry tickets were required for everyone. It was $10 apiece for non-members, and $5 per person for members. Ages 2 and under were free. The event ran from 10am to 5pm, and our timed entry was shortly after the event began.
Annmarie Gardens is located at 13470 Dowell Rd in Solomons, MD. While the Gardens does have a spacious parking lot, it was repurposed for use as a parking area for food trucks for this event. Therefore, upon arrival, we followed signage that directed to parking in a nearby field. There was a well marked pathway that led us to the ticket booth where we showed our e-tickets, and we were allowed onto Garden grounds.
For this event, I tried to choose clothing carefully. The website had suggested that participants pack like they were going to the pool or the beach. I had a picnic lunch in a cooler in the car, along with extra towels and clothing. Pebble was wearing swim trunks, and a rash guard, and Rainbow also had a suit on along with shorts. Stormy didn’t want to wear her swimsuit, so she had on a shirt and shorts. I layered all 3 in sunscreen, we used the restrooms near the ticket booth, and we set out to explore Mud Day.
The girls made a beeline for the Mega Mud Pit as their first stop. The Mega Mud Pit was a gigantic area covered in dirt, that was then soaked by overhead sprinklers, as well as hoses. The girls were a bit hesitant at first, and had to watch their steps as the mud was slippery! It didn’t take long for Pebble to start jumping in every mud puddle giggling like crazy! Rainbow, who is never one to get dirty, was scooping up clods of mud to launch an attack on me. Fortunately, for me, I managed to dodge her throws. Stormy headed deep into the mud pit to an area with an overhead sprinkler, and stood under the spray, grinning.
From the Mega Mud Pit, the girls moved on to the Mud Run, an obstacle course involving jumping hale bales, crawling through mud underneath crisscrossing “ropes,” jumping through tires, and more. The girls were having a blast! Near the Mud Run, the local fire station manned the rinse station. They had a bunch of hoses to spray off the muddy participants, plus several sprinklers going. I was amazed at the sheer amount and creativity of the various stations Annmarie Gardens staff had created. The girls stopped by one station to make a terrarium. Then, they tried their hands at the Mud Print station, where mud was painted onto a design, and then stamped onto a piece of cloth.
By the time the girls had finished creating a terrarium, and made several mud prints, Rainbow’s friend had arrived with her mom. We revisited the terrariums, and then it was back to the Mud Print station. When Rainbow’s friend had made her own mud prints, we set off to find a station called Squish-A-Face-Forest. This station was a fast favorite for all of the girls! It was simple, take a cup of mud from the table, find a tree trunk, squish the mud onto the bark, and then create a face using natural materials on the ground, like pinecones, rocks, sticks, etc. The mud used had more of a pottery base to it, and it stuck like glue to the trees. All of the girls loved designing faces on the trees. Even I got my hands dirty, and I made my own face on the tree. It was fun to walk the pathway, and see the myriad of faces made by many hands on every tree!
By the time we finished squishing faces onto trees, it was lunchtime. My husband volunteered to make the long walk back to the car for the cooler, while the rest of us staked out a spot that was mud-less and shaded. From our picnic spot, we could see the patio of the Arts Building, and a series of pop-up tents that had been set up there to shade a variety of hands-on-learning stations. These stations were manned by staff from places like the Calvert Marine Museum and Calvert County Master Gardeners. The Calvert Library was also present, and the librarian did several storytimes over the course of the day. After lunch, we let the kids explore the patio. The staff here were wonderful! The girls saw an axolotl, something they’d never seen up closer before, turtles, a variety of rocks and minerals, and even fossils. All 3 girls were super stoked when the staff from the Calvert Marine Museum let them each keep a small fossil.
By this point in our day, the girls were starting to tank, Pebble especially. We treated them to snowballs from one of the food trucks, did the obstacle course again, and then did one final round of mud prints. While the mud prints dried, the girls went back to the mega mud pit, which had actually expanded since our earlier visit. The mud pit was considerably wider, as well as wetter, and still as slick as an ice skating rink. The girls didn’t hold back this time. Rainbow was rolling in the mud with her friend, plus the two of them were plastering her friend’s mom’s pants in a layer of mud. Pebble twirled in the muck, until she fell on her bottom, with a giant grin on her face. Stormy, meanwhile, was laying down in the mud pit, telling me how relaxing it was.
My husband and I finally rounded our girls up, visited the rinse station, collected our mud prints, and set out for the car. What a day! It was a hoot watching these kids play in the mud! The mega mud pit was awesome, but Squish-a-Face and the Mud Prints were the top two favorite stations of the day, hands down. I’d worried that Rainbow wouldn’t have any fun due to her distaste for mud, but she was actually muddier than her sisters by the time the day was through. That night I had to wash her hair multiple time, trying to get the dried mud out. I’m not sure we will return for the next annual Mud Day, but it was an amazing experience. If they have Mud Day next year, you need to get tickets, and try it yourselves. So much fun! Happy trails!
https://www.annmariegarden.org/annmarie2/
