The Butterfly Pavilion

Last Friday my friend Andrea's little boy, Sam, turned 2. To celebrate we joined Andrea and her two cousins at the Butterfly Pavilion. It was Andrea, Sam (2 years old), and Ben (8 weeks old). Cousin #1 Theresa, Luca (2 years old) and Sal (10 weeks old). Cousin #2 Liz, Will (3 years old) and Charlie (1 year old). Specifically there were 6 boys and Elianna all under the age of 3 years old including 2 newborns. Us moms were rockstars! Elianna did well and held her own against those boys though. Truth be told, she liked it and definitely was not afraid to get in there with the best of them. At one point the moms were attempting to get a cousins picture. Seeing a picture being taken without her in it (horror of all horrors!), Elianna barged right in and sat on top of them squeezed between them to sit next to Sam in the picture. And she likes to pretend she's shy. Ha!

Elianna photo bombing the cousins picture

On the morning of the party, we awoke to our first snow of the season. Wait, what? Really?! It was so cold!  And way to early in the season!

I had never been to the Butterfly Pavilion or even knew it existed so I wasn't really sure what to expect. No judging now, but I'm a bit scared of butterflies. Yeah those little flimsy fluttery things. They are just weird to me. Not a fan. But... for Elianna I wanted to be strong so she wouldn't grow up with some strange phobia of butterflies. Thankfully there were other exhibits to look at such as huge cockroaches and tarantulas. I actually allowed a tarantula to crawl across my hand. My hand still itches just thinking about it. Shivers up and down my spine!

Huge cockroaches

Hanging out with the bugs

Letting the tarantula "Rosie" walk on my hand...

...and even smiling about it!

Besides the bug/spider room, there was also a room with interesting sea creatures. You could "pet" a horseshoe crab and star fish. Elianna wanted no part of touching any creatures. At all. The third room was a room of fun things to crawl on and fun "informative" games to play. Then there was that dreaded room - the butterfly room. Apparently butterflies are attracted to brightly colored clothes not gray and black clothing like I was wearing. Thank you Lord! No butterflies landed on me - that I know of - nor did I touch one. We entered, walked around and left with no phobia meltdowns . . . from me.

When Elianna saw the tentacles on the octopus, her immediate reaction was "Cherrios!"

Elianna was scared to cross the "swinging bridge" but Will was sweet and held her hand all the way across.

The birthday boy

Andrea was sweet and let "Bowen" ride along in the baby carrier with Ben

Butterflies eating whatever it is they eat (I'm sure if I had read all the stuff I would know)

Best buddies

Elianna, Charlie, Sam and Will

It's a fun place but I'm not sure worth the $8 admission Andrea paid for me. Probably a been-there-done-that kinda place. However, it was nice to celebrate Sam's birthday and make new friends!

The best attempt at a picture with all the kids in it

Will, Charlie, Elianna holding Ben, Luca holding Sal and Sam {L to R}