releasing butterflies

We don't have much planned these days since we are eagerly awaiting this little boy's arrival but when I wake up still pregnant with nothing to do we quickly make some plans even if that means we roll up late (who am I kidding..that is our norm).  That was us last Saturday.  We took up some friends on an invitation to participate in releasing and tracking monarch butterflies in a forest preserve in the burbs. Annikah had studied the monarch's butterflies migration during home school last year and this was a great chance to see it is action.  We managed to miss the entire presentation but got there in time for the tagging and releasing which was pretty awesome.  Every year these butterflies fly thousands of miles to escape the cold and head to a small part of Mexico.  I feel them! We were surprised at how hands on the experience was as they let the kids participate in the tagging and releasing.  I kinda felt bad that these little guy's journey of nearly 3,000 miles started by being manhandled by a bunch of kids squeezing up all over them but as we learned they are pretty tough. We then did a little hiking and just enjoying the lack of concrete and noise.

learning how to tag them and interrupting saintly forest ranger with no less than 1 million questions

watching the kids giggle and freak out when the butterflies climbed on them was priceless!
the releasing part was the most fun
Evy was super into "the butterflies be on my face!!" part of the experience

even J dawg & me had to get in on it


nature hike

and a game to show how difficult the journey of the monarch is (full disclosure Evy cried whenever someone chased her so she was allowed to just run around and "lay eggs" (put cards in the bucket undisturbed)

 We love the city but some days it is so nice to escape it for a bit. It was an awesome family adventure spent enjoying the beautiful fall day, marveling at God's creation, and hanging out together.