Butterfly Museum

The Smithsonian has a butterfly museum and, let me just say, it is so amazing! It is definitely worth the trip out there, even with getting three little ones on the metro. I went with a friend who has four children and her older kids were out of school that day which proved to be a life saver. We both had strollers and there were escalators everywhere but I never found an elevator. There's got to be one somewhere, but since we had two extra sets of hands, we folded up the strollers and headed to the escalators. Isaac wanted to try getting on and off the escalators without me holding him and he did super. He is pretty good at listening and following directions for a two year old.

In the butterfly museum, we met one of the staff who really took to our group and led us through asking the kids questions and letting them hold butterflies on a paintbrush. Hannah answered some great questions using her observational skills. She noticed the differences between the butterflies and the moths when the lady asked. Genna surprised me with some answers to her questions that Hannah had forgotten. She recognized the monarch from our books, and was interested to learn how to tell a male from a female monarch by a spot on its wings. Isaac really enjoyed the exhibit as well, but he did not like the butterflies landing on him. He watched one hang out for a while on my head though. Hannah was dying for a butterfly to land on her after reading one of the library books the night before called, Velma Gratch and the Way Cool Butterfly, where Velma wants one to land on her so badly and they keep landing on everyone else. Right before she leaves one lands on her, and the same thing happened to Hannah. But in the story the butterfly won't ever leave Velma's finger, and Hannah's butterfly friend landed on her shoulder only briefly. My favorite part was watching the butterflies drink nectar with their proboscis rolling and unrolling. Tame butterflies will let you get a lot closer than ones in nature, obviously. We had one casualty. A butterfly was stepped on. I guess my kids did not get my sensitivity for animals since I was much more distraught about this than they were.

Holding a butterfly on a paintbrush

The staff member teaching Genna something

Isaac getting an up close look at a butterfly stupidly landing on the ground

Next to the butterfly museum was the bug zoo. Since bug begins with B, we had to stop by there as well. Isaac got to hold a giant grasshopper and Hannah held a caterpillar. We missed the tarantula feeding unfortunately. But we did get to see a bunch of brand new butterflies just out of their chrysalises. Isaac really liked watching the bees.

The bees

The Grasshopper

Then the bone museum was next. Hannah was excited to see the bones of the ear. She knows the names of all of them because somehow she was asking questions about ears and so she has this random fact. They all liked looking at the skeletons, but Isaac was getting hungry at this point so he was less enthused. We ate lunch and hopped, I mean, slowly made our way onto the Metro again where Isaac fell fast asleep on me for the trip home.

Everyone's favorite moments from the field trip...

Hannah- When the butterfly landed on her, and (and I quote) "When I told the lady the moth's antenna were different and she looked at you like I knew everything." Yes, she seriously said that was her favorite part! The funny thing is the lady did turn and look at me with that amazed look. I am sure she thought Hannah wouldn't know what it meant or notice. I am sure there is a lesson in here that I am supposed to teach her, but that was just plain funny.

Genna- Seeing a chrysalis and holding a butterfly on the paintbrush.

Isaac- He seemed to enjoy the bees the most.