Flutterbys!

*All pictures in this post were taken by my mother.*

A few month ago (actually, about 4 months ago) a Groupon came around for a local butterfly conservatory.  It wasn't something I was familiar with, but the deal looked really good.  I was able to purchase a one year membership for up to 7 individuals.  I believe I paid about $11 for it.  It needed to be activated by October, so D and I decided that we should finally use it this past weekend.  We took the boys and both of our mothers on Saturday morning.

Passion Flower (or as the boys call it, an Alien Flower)

I hadn't really expected much...a few butterflies and flowers maybe, but I was actually pleasantly surprised.  It wasn't large, but it was very nice.  They had a decently sized greenhouse full of beautiful flowers, plants, ponds, and a large variety of butterflies.  The staff was very knowledgeable.  The woman on duty showed us the different stages of the life cycles of several different butterflies and allowed the boys to pet some of the caterpillars.  She then took us into the greenhouse and gave us lots of information about the many different butterflies we were seeing. At one point she even caught a butterfly and let the boys take turns holding it.

I think everyone really enjoyed the experience.  The heat eventually started to make the boys ready to get out of there, but they enjoyed seeing all the butterflies and flowers as much as the rest of us did.

They also had a very nice gift shop which we all enjoyed.  There were several amazing pieces of artwork and jewelry using butterfly wings that I think most of us would have liked to have been able to purchase had the prices not been so astronomically high.   There was an ice cream shop that we did not visit and a cafe that we looked into, but decided we weren't ready for lunch yet.  The menu sounded delicious though.  I'm looking forward to being able to go back since we all have a year pass now.