So today we decided we would try the natural history museum because they are featuring a butterfly house during the summer, and that sounded like the perfect outing for two little girls. Plus the weather was awesome today--low 70's with an overcast sky--which was perfect for a not-too-hot day at an outdoor nature preserve.
The butterfly house - "Native Butterflies of Texas"
There were several different kinds of native Texas flowers lining both sides of the mesh enclosure and butterflies fluttering around everywhere.
You can't really see any butterflies in this photo, but it's the only picture I have of both girls while they were in the house. (Ava fell asleep while we were in there.)
Here's a video of them though:
Sara leaning in to get a closer look.
Sara wore her special butterfly dress that Grandma Christine made for her. This was the perfect occasion for it!
Sara also brought her special jewel-encrusted gold butterfly pin with her to show to the real butterflies. Here she is holding it up to a chart of native Texas butterflies.
She was also using her butterfly pin as a pretend camera! See the cluster of three butterflies she was trying to take a photo of?
Here is the shot she was trying to capture (taken on my phone's camera).
We kept seeing butterflies land on other people, and then one finally landed on Sara's head!
And then one landed on a special card Sara colored for the butterflies. Sara took this as a sign that they liked the pictures she drew for them! :)
The butterfly house was part of a wildlife preserve that also had lots of nature walks and animal enclosures. We enjoyed walking along a nice wooded trail for a bit.
Ava was still asleep during our nature walk, and I left the stroller in the car. DOH!
Sara balancing on the boards along the edge of the trail.
The path we walked along opened up to this beautiful clearing with a field of tall Texas prairie grass and a view of more trees beyond.
Ava finally woke up for the last part of our nature walk. She loved it!
On the wilderness preserve area, there was also a little section of miniature pioneer-type houses. The girls had fun exploring each of them.
And they loved these metal turtle statues. We had to visit them again on our way out!
Not pictured is the Museum portion which was in the main building we passed through before going outside to the wilderness preserve. The museum had lots of fun things to explore, like wildlife, lava rocks, crystals, sea shells, sea turtles, snakes, spiders, a dinosaur fossil dig (which Sara LOVED! "I'm so curious!" she kept saying as she brushed the sand off each piece of the pretend fossil.) Sara also had fun in the shell room. She kept trying to find a shell that looked like Sebastian's from the Little Mermaid. :) And I was impressed by how much Sara learned about the volcanic rock section. I was telling her how each type of rock was made, and then when someone else came to look at it, she repeated all the info back to them in great detail! Although the museum was older than some we have been to, the exhibits and displays were informative and interactive and fun!
We all had a great day at the Heard Museum!