Day Off

Today James was off from school for a teacher development day or something. When he has off and it's not a national holiday (read: Doug is not off), I try to have an activity or an outing that we can do to help break up the day and also treat ourselves to something fun and new. Today we FINALLY went to the Nature Museum. This has been on my list of things to do that predates the birth of James. Why? There's a butterfly exhibit. I love butterflies and have been wanting to go and see this forever. I was able to take Doug to the butterfly center at Callaway Gardens when my parents still lived in Georgia and I just love being around them. Don't know why :)

Anyway, we went this morning and had a blast. It opened at 9am and we were the first ones in the museum! The praying mantis you see at the top of the post welcomed us in ... I have an issue with the mantis as a species ... one 'attacked' me while we were on our honeymoon in Hawaii and my feelings toward them have just not been the same since. Despite this creature as the welcome, we had a wonderful time. There was a water works area to show kids about the flow of rivers, dams, farming etc.

And there were little tanks full of local fish, turtles, lizards, newts, etc. James loved the phone with the lady talking on it. I think he could have just stayed in this room on the phone chatting it up with the duck lady all morning.

We went to this playground area that was off to the side - James had fun here and we stayed for quite a bit.

Then we were off to different rooms highlighting the different kinds of wildlife native to Chicago and Illinois. Then we headed to the Green area where it teaches you about appliances, energy, etc and they had exhibits about bacteria and mold and how can create food like cheese and yogurt. They also had a display about composting and what food looks like at a few days, a week, a month etc. It was quite intense visually. It was also here that they had a bathroom exhibit where the lights turn off and show you all the places Staph and its friend E. Coli like to live. Gross. I have never been so proud of and reassured of my Clorox Bleach obsession in my life.

We ate snack and James saw this huge ladybug and asked me to take his photo in front of it.

And finally, FINALLY, we went to the butterfly exhibit. It was awesome.