Butterflies

We went to see the butterfly exhibit at one of the Smithsonian museums last week.  It was one of those days that just worked out perfectly.  After getting our timed tickets we then explored the insect exhibit.  They had a whole bunch of ridiculously large insects, but B-man chose to hold this guy.

B-man had so much fun wandering through the exhibit and asking me what every insect did.  I learned a lot from all his questions.  Once our time came we were able to enter the butterfly exhibit.  They gave us a large laminated paper to help us identify the butterflies that we saw, but B-man mostly used it to try and convince the butterflies to land on it.

If you look really closely you can see a butterfly that B-man is trying to “catch.”

B-man tried so hard to have a butterfly land on him.  For some strange reason the butterflies kept landing on me.  A few were there so long I had to get some help getting them off!

They did have some dead butterflies for the kids to touch.  It was such a smart thing because B-man REALLY wanted to touch the butterflies.

Finally, right before we were going, B-man had a butterfly land on his hand.  (One had landed very briefly on his face earlier, but that didn’t satisfy him.)  He was so happy to have this fellow on his hand, and even let me take a picture.  He had been avoiding the camera for most of the time we were with the butterflies.

After leaving we went into a separate room to make sure we didn’t have any hitchhiking butterflies, and then it was time to go to our car.  We had a splendid picnic in the shade on the mall near our car.  It was so relaxing that B-man just couldn’t help but stretch out.  He invited me to lay down too.  It was such a great day.  I didn’t even turn on the music in the car so we could just chat and enjoy being together.  If I could choose what he remembers as an adult I would choose this day.  I hope we get a few more in before the baby comes…

There were lots of beautiful butterflies.  But this was one of my favorites.  It moved its wings like a hummingbird, and of course it was pink.