Butterfly Gardens

It has been a few years since we had gone to the Butterfly Bonanza at Olbrich Gardens.  We talked to the girls about going to visit some butterflies and that they should wear clothes that made them look like flowers.  The girls picked out their own clothes......Taylor had a lot to say in her clothes selection; pink flower shirt....purple/blue flower skirt...this picture really doesn't do it justice.....

But despite the fact that they had thought it was a good idea to dress like flowers they all developed a sudden fear of butterflies.  They ducked and dodged the fluttering butterflies.

Sometimes they felt brave enough to approach a perched butterfly.

But if it so much as opened and closed its wings they would jump back about two feet.

The girls watched the hatchery where chrysalis's open and the new butterflies rest and dry their wings before they are released into the atrium.  The girls were as impressed with the Koi in the pond as they were with the butterflies.  After a few laps, we left through the double set of doors and did the 'butterfly shake' to make sure there were no hitchhiking butterflies.  Molly had a slight panic attack as she felt the tag from her dress move as she jumped up and down, but I was able to convince her that she did not have a butterfly down the back of her dress....*sigh*

We were given Butterfly Passports when we arrived.  The passports led us through the outside gardens to find the stations that held the embossing stamps for the passports.  Along the way we read butterfly trivia and dodged a few bubblebees.

We tried not to disturb too many of the other guests at the Gardens who were taking leisurely strolls or sitting and sketching along the way as four excited girls ran and chased each other among the plants and flowers.