Sunday, June 27, 2010

Butterfly World

On Friday, I took Meg and Emeri to the Botanical Gardens in Claremont to view the Butterfly Pavilion they have there. While the live butterfly population was a little less in number than expected (maybe 20 in all and I'm rounding up), we had a nice time together all the same! It was the day before Meg, Brian and I left for New York for 2 weeks, the girls longest separation from one another in over a year!
Here are the girls viewing a caterpillar. The lady (I think her name was Laura) was completely adorable, and between her and the next guy, these two were the best part of our entire day.
This is Bug Bob. He is a college professor of Bugs, and he is the keeper of the butterflies. Here he is stringing up little cocoons on a stick. He used a needle and thread to help them hang. Once he hangs them up they start to quiver (to ward off predators) and the girls thought that was very interesting. They asked him a zillion questions ("What do the butterflies eat for lunch when they are in there?") about the whole mutation process--so adorable! Bug Bob was amazingly great with children and answered every crazy question precisely as a child would understand it. We spent 30 minutes with Bob and we've been talking about him ever since.


Here is Emeri inspecting the "Specimens." This caused a slight trama for her, given the placement of the pins through the bodies of the butterflies. I know she is smiling slightly in this picture but that's only because I told her to smile for the picture, poor baby. It's still a pretty shot, so it gets posted. 

Oh, my lovelies, in a field of flowers. . . 

2 comments:

Ryan, Jane, Nate and Zach said...

Oh - I want to go there!

Traci Giles said...

Jane, if you go, just know that it's a pretty place, but not so many butterflies as expected, so don't get the kids too excited! The walk was fun (stroller for your little guy) and pretty, and we'll go back for that part!