Ducks & Flies

We are lucky enough to have Stephen home for two days this weekend. Isn't every weekend two days? Not when you are working with a certain company that will remain unnamed but rhymes with Conda Hanada. :) We haven't had him home for a whole weekend since what seems like October. I decided to take full advantage of this and decided to take the kids to the Butterfly House in  St. Louis. It is located in Faust Park and the whole thing is pretty neat. To be economical fun, we took a picnic lunch to eat before playing in the park for a bit. Then we walked through the butterfly conservatory and rode the carousel. We weren't in St. Louis for long when compared to our drive time, but Steve was getting a bit of a headache. Instead of hitting another site we hit a Steak 'n Shake for milkshakes for the ride home. If you have an afternoon, enjoy butterflies, and can stand 85 degree/99% humidity conservatory weather for awhile, I recommend it. A good time was had by all...until the no afternoon nap thing kicked in. That is another story.

 Hear that? Maddie learned this move from her Aunt Sarah when Charlie was born. Any time you say 'Hear that?' she puts her hand to her ear and cocks her head. She has added her own take on this move by making an O with her mouth as if she is very surprised or interested in what she is listening for.

We were hearing ducks at our picnic and Maddie was enthralled. Thank heavens they were tolerant ducks who were waiting for dropped food. She crawled around after them for probably 5 minutes. She was convinced the brown one was the daddy and the colorful one was the mommy. Stephen and I tried to tell her how it really worked, but she was pretty adamant about her take on the situation. She also wanted to know where their babies were.

This is the sour face after the daddy duck (really the mommy duck) took a bite of her chip. I don't blame either one. I love chips, too. I believe she told the duck 'no bite da chip duck'.

Here is Charlie's participation in the conservatory. He slept like a champ despite being hot from the 90 degree weather inside and outside. This particular kind of butterfly LOVED his stroller. When we tried to leave there were about three on the stroller and 1 wouldn't fly off. The door lady had to catch it with a net to make sure it didn't escape with us.

This out of focus picture is Maddie freaking out that the butterfly was going to in some way harm Charlie and/or the stroller (most likely by biting). She was really excited to see the 'flies' until we walked through the door. There were hundreds of them swooping around. She was worried the whole time that they were going to bite. We tried to explain that butterflies are nice, but since she didn't believe us I may tell her the decorative butterflies on her bedroom wall will bite her if she doesn't knock it off with the tantrums. That oughta cause some emotional scars!

Steve wanted a picture of his girls, but he decided to take it at the most amazing part of the whole joint....the fake waterfalls. I couldn't pry her eyes off of it. You would think she had never seen running water before.

Beautiful orchids and whatever kind of moth this was. The moth was huge.

I love this picture of these two on the carousel. Steve's face shows just how much fun he was having. Don't deny the power of the ride. Maddie wanted to ride again so I rode with her. When she got done we asked her what she named her horse. Her response: Pony. Very creative, that one.

Charlie slept through the picnic, park, and butterflies, but he woke up to eat and see the carousel. He did so well considering how hot it was, especially since I had his sun visors blocking the sun and what little breeze there was. He did get to take his pants off to help cool him off. He was the only one of us who got to do that.