The Butterfly Effect

Yesterday we had an awesome outting to downtown DC. On Tuesdays the butterfly encounter at the Natural History museum is free to the public. Since Sam didn't have school (his teachers apparently needed a "teacher day" I am sure it is to catch up on all the grading they have to do :)) I figured it would be a perfect outing. We were joined by our new neighbors Kesli and her little boy Ryli. Luckily we only had to wait a few minutes for our turn. When we went inside I was in complete amazement. When I have gone into butterfly exhibits before they have been less then stellar. In this one butterflies were everywhere. You literally had to watch where you stepped so you wouldn't step on them. The boys loved in.

Thankfully for the most part the butterflies are slow moving or else just rest on something because when they would zoom past Sam would freak right out (Ryli felt the same way so that made me feel better). I was proud of Liam who didn't try and squish a single one (that was my main apprehension was that he would be all cute and then WHAM! smack a butterfly, and I would then be sent a bill for killing an endangered species or something).

I of course left my memory card in the car but thankfully Kesli had her camera and snapped all these great pictures for me. It is so weird to see myself in pictures for once... depressing actually, as the realization that I still have a lot of baby weight to loose sets in.

There was the HUGEST butterfly I have ever seen resting in the bush's. It would give a flap everynow and then and sort of hop to the side. I wondered to myself if he was considered morbidly obese in the butterfly world and actually could no longer fly due to his ginormous weight. I guess we'll see when we go back if he is still hiding in the same bush.

The exhibit was sooooo hot and humid that poor Kesli's camera totally fogged up. Which is a bummer because this is a picture of a butterfly that landed on my head! The boys got a kick out of it.

After you were done you had to go through a room with mirrors making sure there were no hitchhiking butterflies on you. We then headed over to the History museum. They have this amazing kids area called the spark lab. They perform great experiements for the kids with dry ice etc. and there are tons of things for the kids to explore and play with. My boys loved the overszed magnifying glasses and I am so wishing I had a picture of how Sam would hold it right smashed up against his face. We then had to stop at the gift store to pick up two space shuttle replica toys. Ryli had one and Sam was in LOVE with it. Thank heavens they were only 8 bucks so I could afford to get both Sam and Liam one to avoid fighting.