My New Favorite Place

On Wednesday the girls and I went to Brookside Gardens to see the Butterfly Exhibit.  It runs from May until September (I think).  Harper really likes butterflies, and Hadley's into them too since Fancy Nancy likes them. 

We went to Brookside Gardens on St. Patrick's Day and I really enjoyed it, so I was eager to go back.  The area is beautiful, and the girls love walking along the paths and looking at the flowers, etc.

I love this picture of Hadley mid-run.  Hadley loves to run.  And you can see Harper is enjoying herself as well....whatever it is she's doing.

I had to take a picture of this sign just in case we didn't make it to the exhibit.  It says that it is a "shady 8 minute walk with an incline" to the butterflies.  Eight minutes could be 8 days with a 3 year old and a 1 year old.  I wasn't sure we would make it, so I took the picture to show that we were intending to go.

We enjoyed ourselves along the walk. 

We stopped to do some dancing on a rock.  Always an important thing to do.

When we got to the exhibit, you have to stop in an area where people explain that you are not allowed to touch the butterflies.  Also, if one happens to land on you, you are not to "shoo" it off.  Someone will come around and pick it off for you.  At this point I started to panic because I am not a calm person and my instinct is to swat at anything that gets too close - bugs or humans - it doesn't matter.

This lady here is telling Hadley about the importance of not touching the butterflies.  You can tell Hadley is taking it very seriously.  I bet she wanted to say, "Lady, my sister decapitated a caterpillar a couple of days ago.  I know ALL ABOUT this.  Save your speech for someone less responsible then me."

Once we assure everyone we will not in any way harm the butterflies, we get to go into the exhibit, and it really is just like the book Fancy Nancy Bonjour, Butterfly! 

Harper's in the middle of saying "Help!" because she wants to sit on the bench.  She's all about sitting on benches right now.  It's one of her favorite things to do.

Hadley started to get a little nervous once Stompy Stomperson came over to check out the butterflies.

Hadley's saying, "No, no, no, Harper."

It's OK. Harper preferred to catch up on some reading. 

And do this:

We stayed for awhile, but ended up leaving when a butterfly landed on me and I freaked out.  Luckily, none of the butterfly protectors saw me, but several children and their mothers did.  I wanted to say, "Careful kids, you don't want to cross us.  You have no idea what my 1 year old is capable of."

On our walk back we went through the Children's Garden and played in a treehouse for awhile before heading home.

Hadley has been asking to go back, so I think we'll make another trip before too long.