Butterflies

The boys and I like to go to The Strong National Museum of Play on days when it’s rainy and we haven’t been there in a while. A couple of weeks ago it was been rather gloomy, and since we felt a little caged in (it had been rather gloomy here for what seems like an eternity) we decided to take a field trip to The Strong and to treat ourselves a little bit, too, by going to Dancing Wings Butterfly Garden that’s housed there.

Cutie Pie and I learned a bit about butterflies on the internet just a few days before this after he started asking questions about bugs, insects and butterflies! Also this particular morning he saw a bit about butterflies’ life cycles on a show he watched. It just seemed appropriate to go see real butterflies to continue the learning. They have a wonderfully informative short presentation before entering, which I loved. It helped prepare me to answer Cutie Pie’s questions while we were in observing. If you haven’t been before and have a butterfly garden in your area I strongly recommend going!

Here are just a few of the pictures I took on our adventure. They are a little fuzzy due to the condensation – it’s much warmer in there than the rest of The Strong and it affected my camera, but I think they still turned out quite well!

There are little plates of fruit here and there for the butterflies to eat from. Did you know butterflies taste with their feet?

There are so many lush plants and trees in this large atrium. It’s gorgeous!

There are also two little pools of water. This one is home to several turtles.

This is Cutie Pie’s favorite thing to look at – a small pond with bright yellow fish! Can you see them?

This was taken while we were peeking at the chrysalis holding area. There must have been a hundred or so in there, and maybe twenty were working their way out or stretching their wings, including this one! Beautifully amazing!

Cutie Pie and Sweet Pea seemed to have a difficult time when we were in there. Sweet Pea would only whisper and Cutie Pie seemed almost scared to walk. They stuck right next to me, making it a little difficult to take pictures at times, and continually reminded me that we were instructed to talk quietly and move slowly. After we returned into The Strong, I asked the boys what they thought about the butterflies and found out they were so afraid of stepping on a butterfly or one of the many birds that can be found pecking around on the paths. They did both say they want to go again to see the butterflies, though! I guess they did enjoy it!