It’s only a matter of time…

…Until I turn out like this chickadee…  Urban Gardening, ghetto style!  })i({

(You should probably watch this once first without the kiddos, just to be sure).

Happy Weekend Bug!

How can you not have a happy weekend after looking at this adorable little friend?  His name, in case you were wondering, is Frank  (although he sometimes goes by Horatio).  I don’t know why – that’s just what he told me!  })i({

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Butterfly-tastic!

What started as an awful morning turned into the most amazing day yesterday because… my husband and I went to a butterfly garden in Wheaton, MD with some dear friends.  As you may know, I am sort of addicted to butterflies, and I may or may not have taken way too many pictures.  Luckily, our friends (and my husband) were very tolerant of my picture taking.  Here are a few highlights:

(I would have been happy if that big metal butterfly was the only one we saw, by the way).

Some Very Hungry Caterpillars:

A surreal shot of the ceiling (don’t they all look like those little butterflies on a stick from Sesame Street?):

…Don’t step off the path!

My husband’s favorite colors:

And an extreme close-up:

And, just for good measure (and because the only thing I like more than butterflies is trees):

…one of the most excellent trees I’ve seen in a long time.  Awesome. (The butterfly garden was part of a park, which we walked around in after we were completely saturated with butterfly goodness).

The butterfly garden was amazing; so much so that I seriously considered moving to MD just so I could be closer to it!  It was pretty inexpensive to get in – only $6/adult, but the friends we went with had season passes since they live close, and they said the passes pay for themselves after about 5 visits.  It was a fun activity for adults, but there were tons of kids there, as well as some friendly guides who passed out magnifying glasses & let the kiddos touch the butterflies that were “not alive anymore.”  The staff also made me promise not to be offended when they checked me for “hitchhiking butterflies” before they let me leave the garden, and they paired the promise with a short lesson about how letting the butterflies out would upset the native ecosystem.

Anyway, the butterflies will be there until sometime in September, so I may just have to go back once or twice (or seventy more times) before the butterflies get shipped back to their winter homes.  Hooray, butterflies!  })i({