Dinos and Butterflies

Now to let you know what we've been up to lately...

Friday Grandma and Papa arrived. We have been having a great time! The boys have been so happy to have company and are being spoiled with all the attention.

Saturday we got moving early and went down to D.C. to the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History or as Benjamin affectionately calls it "The Dinosaur Museum." Benjamin has really been into dinosaurs lately so I told him that when Grandma and Papa visited we would try to go. He was thrilled Saturday morning when I told him we were going to go. We got to D.C. around 10:30 a.m. and found pretty decent free parking within close proximity to the museum.

Benjamin was in awe as we entered the museum and he saw all the dinosaur bones. His jaw just kind of dropped and he had a blank stare as he took in the enormity of the dinosaurs. We spent some time looking at all the different dinosaur bones. They have quite a collection. And I must say that as a mother of boys I now have a new appreciation of dinosaurs! I don't ever recall being so thrilled about them or thrilled about visiting museums with bones from dinosaurs but to live through Benjamin's eyes of excitement was enough to really make dinosaurs magical for me now.

Not only did they have the dinosaurs but they also recently opened a butterfly exhibit at the same museum. And Benjamin also has a fascination with butterflies and bugs right now. His class at preschool is called the "Blue Butterfly" class which has made butterflies all that much more exciting. And they recently had caterpillars in their classroom which they watched form cocoons and turn into butterflies. Just last week they set their butterflies free. So, this visit to the museum could not have been timed better.

So, we were off to check out the Butterfly Exhibit and the Insect Zoo. I would have to say that although it was absolutely thrilling to Benjamin at age 3 and a half, it was a bit disappointing to me. (Years ago, before Don and I were married [or even engaged!] we had gone to Niagara Falls and there we had visited some botanical gardens with butterflies that were stunning compared to the rinky dink exhibit at this national museum). There was a fee to get into this exhibit and no stroller allowed. So, Benjamin and I paid our $11 and went into the "Butterfly and Plants" exhibit. They gave us a chart with pictures of butterflies to look for and Benjamin studied it closely and really wanted to look for blue butterflies (of course, everything exciting is Blue in his world). Luckily, we didn't have to hunt long before we came across blue butterflies. And one landed on me a couple of times. We didn't realize he was blue until he spread his wings. I think Benjamin could have stayed in this part of the museum much longer than the 15 minutes we spent in there (he could have spent all day in there, in fact).

Once we got to the Insect Zoo I set Samuel free from the constraints of the stroller. He had a ball climbing through a life size replica of an insect tunnel which was just his size! And pushing all the buttons on another exhibit. It doesn't take much to entertain him at his age.

Before we left the museum Harry convinced my mom to take a peek at the Hope Diamond. Then we were off to enjoy some fresh air and some lunch on the National Mall. It was a gorgeous day reaching 82ish.

We left D.C. around 1 p.m. and the boys both fell asleep. They were completely wore out and continued to sleep for awhile once we got home. It was a nice way to kick off our visit with Grandma and Papa!