Thanksgiving Point: Butterfly Conservatory

After the farm we went to the Butterfly Conservatory. There are two parts to this museum. The first part of the conservatory is an indoor green house where the butterflies are housed. It is a humid, warm environment filled with plants and water features. Everyone has to watch a video before going in on how to safely pick up a butterfly, and when you leave you have to go through a room filled with mirrors and be inspected for butterfly hitchhikers.

The kids loved looking for butterflies and holding them. I thought it would be a quick in and out, but the boys could have spent hours in there finding butterflies. They were all very gentle with them and loved holding them and looking at them.

I even got in on the action when a butterfly landed on my purse.

The conservatory had laminated pages that helped you identify what kind of butterfly you are holding. They also provide magnifying glasses so you can look closer at the butterflies.

This butterfly landed right on Link’s page. Maybe it thought it was with friends.

The conservatory also had a cocoon display. If you were lucky, you could watch a butterfly come out of it’s cocoon. You can see different butterflies inside the window that have recently hatched.

The second part of the conservatory was a kids play area with interactive educational displays.

John really liked wrestling this caterpillar.

I think he’s almost got it pinned.

Looks like Locke has his side under control. So funny!

The boys really liked climbing on this leaf and butterfly too.

John riding on the butterfly. What a great pose!

The boys had fun climbing into this cocoon too.

John as a butterfly in a cocoon. He really gets interactive, which makes awesome pictures!

The conservatory also had other bug displays like this lady bug exhibit. You could put on ladybug costumes and join in.

All the boys liked this ant game where you can move your ant to food and pick it up.

There was also a dung beetle exhibit where you can try and move a piece of dung that would be the size a dung beetle would move. And there was also a playground and other exhibits but we didn’t have time to do anything else this visit