Nature Museum visit

It's been quite the adventurous few weeks for Colin - he's seen two museums in as many weeks, and this one - The Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum - was a huge hit!  It's a museum that really feels like it's geared toward little kids, with all sorts of experiential exhibits and kid friendly subjects (garbage! bugs! water! so much fun!).

We enjoyed the butterfly garden - which was awesome, not only because there are hundreds of gorgeous butterflies to look at all over the place, but because it is HOT in there, which is a real treat in this frigid winter weather.  Colin leaned on some rocks and stared at the little waterfall in there and the koi pond (until he tried to eat the rocks he was leaning on...gross). We also walked through the bug exhibit, where Colin proved to me that boys will be boys, even at such a young age.  He loved looking at all the live bugs, and stared with wonder at the gigantic moving fake bugs.  We also played a bit in the river exhibit, where you could splash in the water as you learn about dams and river beds and some other stuff that none of us read about.  Colin was a big fan of the fountain.

While Colin was too young to really appreciate most of it, I could tell that this will be a place that we will frequent regularly once he is more mobile and a little bit older. Once he's older, they have a big indoor play space and all sorts of craft activities in conjunction with different parts of the museum.  All of that combined with free admittance on Thursdays for Illinois residents (plus Thursday afternoon concerts with Mr. Singer) and easy-to-find free parking on Cannon Drive means this was likely the first visit of many more to come!