Ahh, Butterfly!

We took the kids to Reiman Gardens this morning. It's a botanical center on the Iowa State campus about 40 minutes north of our home. While a botanical center might sound like a poor choice to keep three toddler entertained, we had our reasons for visiting. Reiman Gardens has a butterfly center, which Abbie should like, and a temporary exhibit with several dinosaur statues, which the boys should like.

The butterfly center was impressive. It was a small, circular, indoor room that would probably take about two minutes to walk through if you were in a hurry. They crammed about 800 butterflies and a bazillion plants in the room, though, so butterflies were constantly flittering about. We were able to stand and watch for several minutes. Tory had a butterfly land on his back, which he didn't notice, and I had one land on my face, which I definitely noticed. That's the benefit of wearing a yellow or orange shirt to a butterfly center.

The dinosaur statues were interesting. They were positioned in plant displays to create a natural appearance. The boys' favorite was probably the giant sea scorpion, which is a strange favorite prehistoric creature to choose, but that's what they like.

These are some of the adorable things Abbie said today:

"I'm afraid of butterflies!" (spoken as we walked into the butterfly center)

"I want to do something fun." (spoken as we walked through the garden looking for dinosaur statues)

"I don't want ice cream." (spoken as we tried to bribe Abbie into eating her lunch. We eventually got ice cream, which she did in fact want)