insect-ival

Saturday we went back over to the Botanical Garden to check out the 14th Annual Insectival. There were all sorts of bugs to look at and learn about, but we were naturally drawn to the butterflies.



We got there just in time to see the release of a whole bunch of Monarch butterflies, which was really cool. There was a huge crowd of people there, and when those beautiful butterflies swooped out everyone was just dazzled!





There were squeals of delight from every side of me- kids and adults alike. What a great thing to see. The butterflies spread out across the sy quickly, and then descended to the bushes and flowers where we were able to get a close look at several of them. What a treat!





Back inside we saw displays of some of the most gorgeous insects imaginable. The colors are just unreal- nature is so wonderful. We have been lucky enough to look at a number of these display boxes up close before, at our ACE program when Hazel took the Bug Identification class last year. The instructor for that class was able to get these displays from UGA out on loan to share with us. What a fantastic resource.



Stella was the only one interested in the crafty activities, so while Lyle and Hazel ran around outside with Jason, Daisy and I took her in to learn all about butterflies. She got to use rubber stamps to illustrate this wheel about the life cycle of a Monarch butterfly, and then she colored a butterfly mask.







We saw ginormous cockroaches and fire ants too, in addition to some more butterflies. It was a very cool festival and we look forward to next year. We had no idea how huge it was going to be so we didn't really allow enough time to deal with the crowds and get to see everything.