Franklin Park Conservatory

In a perfect world, I would be on top of all things bloggin' related but alas...I am not.

Does this picture make up for it?

My excuses are as follows: 

1.) my toddler had hand, foot, and mouth and it was like living in hades

2.)  I watch a lot of television at night

3.) I was especially tired last week

4.) someone else's kid at daycare got hand, foot, and mouth

and I spent a great deal of time googling the crap out of the phrase

"can you get hand foot and mouth again"

(turns out you can - depends on the strain you got the first time)

4.) my computer is 10 years old and on it's last leg

(anyone want to send me a Christmas in July present? I will love you forever. But, chances are, if you already read this blog - I'm going to love you forever anyway).  Are computers cheap? I don't know.

I digress...

The Hauck family left the nest last weekend...and it was so, SO fun!

Perhaps becuase we had spent a week previous inside and going no where because

we wanted to keep our germs to ourself.

Or maybe, because we got to eat lunch at DiBella's subs (in Columbus!!)

but mostly because we went to Franklin Park Conservatory.

The main attraction here is all of the beautiful flowers organized in their respective habitats but for a couple months they also play host to lots of beautiful butterflies!

(This little lady is called a blue morph - because when it opens those

drab brown wings, you see the most beautiful, shimmery wings!)

And - they have also added a "maze" to help teach you about the

butterfly's life cycle and challenges it faces in the wild.

Max was loving walking all over the place.

And, there was something to climb on, spin, stick your face in etc. at every turn

so it really kept him quite interested.

(Max started out as a tiny caterpillar, then made a chrysallis,

and then turned into a beautiful butterfly!!)

(Spin the wheel to find out your butterfly fate!)

We actually spent wayyyy more time here than I thought we would.

Max comandeered his stroller and wanted to "drive" it all over the place.

And then we decided to stay for the butterfly release at 1:30!

Of course, the later we stayed - the more we gambled with afternoon nap time.

So, in the end - we saw one butterfly get released, and you know what?

It was pretty cool.

(This is Max's "where are all the butterflies?" face)

Anyway ... it was a fantastic morning/afternoon and made me more inclined to be a little more adventurous when planning activities and forgo our predictable walks to our neighbor playgrounds and branch out. A little bit. In fact, we bought a family membership...so it's pretty much a guarantee.

I mean, how can we deny this little face??

ha! over and out.

xoxo