We found the perfect escape from the icy cold wind -- the Smithsonian's Butterfly Pavilion. Tucked inside the Natural History Museum next to the creepy-crawly insect "zoo" is DC's butterfly refuge. It's warm and balmy inside -- don't need a jacket in there!
Friends from our building joined us for this mid-week outing.
The pavilion was full of large, colorful, exotic species of butterflies. Julia had on her sparkly red ruby slippers and the butterflies frequently flitted down to inspect, much to her surprise. Fortunately, we did not have any butterfly mishaps. I was a bit afraid one might have been stomped by acccident!
After we were done with the butterflies, we went to check out the rest of the museum. So much to see and not enough time! We were lucky enough to go through the insect area just as they were taking the tarantula out for a feeding. The tarantula stayed in his portable cage, much to the kids' relief. They stayed pretty close during that demo. On our way to the BIG bone dinosaur exhibit, we found some of the smaller animals in the museum. The swordfish was one of their favorites.
We stumbled upon the hands-on Forensic Lab in one obscure corner of the museum. The kids assembled their own skeleton and learned about all the different bones that make up your body. They didn't do too bad, either!
We finally made it to the Dinosaur area. Just enough time to browse the big bones and make a plan for our next visit.
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| Chloe and Caden by T-Rex |
