Sunnylands Family Day invites visitors of all ages to appreciate nature

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. (KESQ) – The Sunnylands Center & Gardens hosted a Family Day on Sunday, inviting valley families to take a moment to learn more about nature.

This month's Family Day was centered around the center's new exhibition, dubbed "Curating Canopy: Trees at Sunnylands." That exhibition debuted in September and will run for the next two years.

Many families brought picnic blankets to lay out on the lawn as kids ran past and played with toys set up on the grass.

With trees at the focus, the hands-on and educational activities for families involved things like coloring in wood rounds cut from trees you can find planted at Sunnylands. Also, exhibitors showed off ways you can weave palm fronds into origami to create art, like this roadrunner.

"We have a lot of tree-related activities, whether it's the smell, whether it's the things that come off of them, and a lot of interpretations of what we can do with those things," highlighted Rhoda Coscetti, the Community Program Specialist at Sunnylands.

Soapmaker It Refills also provided guests with epsom bath salts scented with essential oils that smelled like trees at the center, among other activities. Coscetti said the goal: have the community reinterpret what makes trees special and the way we think about them in our daily lives.

Coscetti explained, "I hope that we can find appreciation and beauty in the nature that surrounds us. And in that appreciation, taking care of those things and just bringing light to that."

Sunnylands staff said these family day events happen every month or so from January to April. If you missed this one, keep an eye out for the next day of family fun!