Butterfly Magic

I took the kids to a live butterfly exhibit today, and it was awesome! I didn't really know what to expect ~ this is Tucson, where everything is pretty laid-back and so I wasn't expecting anything too extravagant. The exhibit is at our Botanical Gardens, which are a small (but beautiful) facility. They've converted their green house into the butterfly garden and when we walked in, it really was magical! 

There were easily 50 butterflies fluttering overhead the entire time, trays of fruit everywhere with butterflies sipping, flowers with butterflies all over them ~ it was amazing. Michael was in heaven because their "star actor" right now is the Blue Morpho Butterfly, which he knows all about from the TV show Go, Diego, Go. Michael amazed one of the docents when he started spouting off about how they hide from predators, what they eat, and what temperatures they prefer.  He got to hold one and for the first time in as long as I can remember he stood in one spot without moving until the butterfly decided to fly away.

Another docent brought out a box of newly hatched butterflies (she was very excited that it was their birth day) and she sat Miranda down and let her hold a very rare butterfly, the Pearlescent Queen.

(Miranda is not very thrilled about strangers lately, but she endured the docent holding her hand for this. Hence the funny look on her face.)

It flew off her hand onto my forehead, but after it settled there, the docent put it back on Miranda's hand, where it stayed for about 20 minutes. 

Miranda walked with her little hand held out in front of her the whole time, just talking to the butterfly and showing it around. They had a very nice little chit-chat!

They had told us when we came in that they didn't have any giant moths, but the kids and I found one ~ they were very excited to see they had an atlas moth after all! I really loved how the wing's tips look like snake heads.

They had magnifying glasses for the kids, and Miranda found a yellow butterfly with a little bit of wing damage that she was able to get a good long look at.  She declared it her favorite even though she didn't get to hold it.

If you live in Tucson or are visiting anytime soon, you should make a point to go see this exhibit. It's really something else!

p.s. Miranda is wearing a yellow sweater that was mine when I was little ~ something I love very dearly about having a little girl of my own.

Rain, Rain Go Away!

Just shortly before Christmas we had a really great rainy spell in Tucson and the kids discovered the joys of umbrellas.  Miranda mucked around outside for almost two hours one day, filling the umbrella up with rain, dumping it out, listening to how the rain sounded when she was under the umbrella ~ all the fun stuff that you forget about when you're running from the parked car to the store trying not to get wet.  It really was fun to watch them play, even though they were popsicles by the end and took lots of work to get warm again!



Miranda was totally soaked by the end of playing, but she loved it!

(Jen, recognize that umbrella? I still have it!)

Arrrrr! Meow!

We recently went to a pirate/dinosaur/matchbox car/pizza birthday party, and both of the kids elected to be pirates. Captain Michael and First Mate Miranda looked pretty fierce if I do say so!


Here they are telling me what pirates say..."Arrrrrr!"

Miranda later had her face painted to be a kitty cat at the party.