butterfly house

Pearlridge Mall has a rotating array of exhibits they like to bring into the mall depending on the season.  

During Christmas, there's the Christmas train, during Easter, it's the Easter Bunny.

Then they have other fun stuff like dinosaur or insect themed train rides as well.

This spring, they brought in a little butterfly house!  How fun is that?

So, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to take the kids to see some real live butterflies.

 They had a largish glass atrium in the middle of the mall with lots and lots of butterflies flying around.

Okay, it was actually pretty small-they only let in about 25 people per session.  We went with a huge group (just cousins...but that's a big group in and of itself, right?).

We tried and tried to get a butterfly to land on one of us...some were more successful than others.

I had given up and was about to exit the atrium, but at the last second...I caught one!  Yay!

 Kaden was not impressed.  Though in his defense, he had just woken up and was feeling none too happy about me putting him down on the ground.  He was content with me holding him....however, I was not.

Did I mention it was DEATHLY hot inside the atrium?

It was. I was literally dripping sweat. It was kinda gross, actually.

 Anna trying to get the butterfly to transfer to her hand...

 Success!!

And then this guy landed on me.

Remember what I said about "dripping sweat?"  

Yea, I wasn't joking.

But, it was all worth it in the name of insect exploration! :)