Butterfly Pavilion and Flatiron Crossing

Friday's trip was to the Butterfly Pavilion and it was a good day to go. As we pulled up and unloaded from the car, I took off my jacket because it was so warm outside.  Inside the building there are several exhibits to see. You start off with the bugs and insects. This is a room filled with cages of roaches, beetles, spiders, scorpions, bees, and ants. On each cage is a plaque with the name and some information about the creature. Ellie loves looking at this stuff. I don't know how she would react to touching because mommy doesn't touch them.

 

Jake's picture of some beetles.

   

The other guys call him "coach".



   

A huge tarantula as compared to Jake's hand

 

I can't remember what this bug was called but it had something to do with mask.



Here's daddy holding Rosie, the tarantula and an Ellie bug.

After you walk through this room, there is another room where you can look at and touch a horseshoe crab and starfish. This is a small exhibit but with some fun information and games for elementary age kids.

After this, you enter the "Wings of the Tropics" exhibit. This is a room that is mostly sealed off and very humid, like the tropics. Butterflies fly freely around the room. Food is provided as well as plenty of plants that the butterflies would be used to. 

 Anytime a butterfly would pass or we would point one out to Ellie, she "oohed" and "aahed" or "wowed".


Ellie bug with the butterflies.

Some of the butterflies just sitting on some flowers.



Ellie did like walking around in here. As you can tell by my hair, it was very humid.

Of course, after spending enough time in there that our skin felt lovingly refreshed we walked out of the room. You have to exit through 2 sets of doors. In between each set is a small area that has a strong gust blowing back into the tropics and mirrors on each side. The signs inform you to check for hitchhiking butterflies.

Before you exit the building, there is always the gift shop. I always look around even though we rarely buy anything. I almost bought this though.

100% recycled and odorless products made from elephant poo. Now that's recycling.

 The pavilion was a little fun and potentially interesting. It would definitely be better with an older child that questions or at least understands what the bugs were. They have mini programs throughout the day but we weren't there during any of the times. The descriptions of them were quite interesting.

Since the day was still young, we decided to go check out yet another mall, Flatiron Crossing. Denver's newer malls have been designed to bring people in and let them stay all day. This was just outside the entrance we walked in. In the middle there were lounge chairs in sand. Parents were relaxing in the sun (remember is was about 70 outside) and kids playing in this giant sandbox.

Great motivation for parents to hang out by the mall.

Most of the malls I have been to so far are really trying to incorporate ideas or activities that invite parents to bring the kids to so they are out of the house, which is genius because if your already at the mall most people can't help but walk inside to see about any sales going on.

I just enjoy walking around and seeing what crazy ideas and clothing people come up with. We stopped by Fuzziwigs candy store. Soon Jake and I realized we have a potential problem child.

Ellie trying to sneak candy out of the bins.

After we left the store (no she didn't manage to actually steal or eat any of the candy), we walked through a few other stores.  At one point, I was going to put Ellie back into the stroller when I saw 2 packs of markers on the seat. Upon inspection, they had Fuzziwig tags on them. Neither Jake nor I know how they made it into the stroller. Neither of us saw Ellie even touch markers. So we had to head back and Jake returned them to the store.



Flatiron is a nice mall. A new retro type look on the inside. All around the mall are small strip malls with almost any store imaginable and plenty of restaurants within a 5 minute drive. That's how quite a few of the shopping districts are around here. At least I know I have options when I want to go shopping.