Reiman Gardens

Little man was supposed to have his class field trip to Reiman Gardens earlier this month but it was canceled due to weather and rescheduled for today.  The weather still wasn't ideal, but it was a cool field trip.  The Gardens are less than 45 minutes away yet I have never been.  They have a butterfly garden and sculptures and gardens...  The kids even had a visit from the Insect Zoo (located at ISU) so they could get up-close and personal with some creepy crawlies.  Here are some pictures from the day - I warn you though, there are creepy crawlies toward the bottom of the post so be warned if you're squeamish.

The butterfly garden section has these cool glass containers so you can see the butterflies emerge from their chrysalis before they bring them to the actual "garden area".  

Then you go into this aviary-type enclosed area where butterflies are flying all over the place.

They have a giant moth too...

Here's more butterflies though.

It's early in the Season yet so the flowers weren't quite in full-bloom but they had some fun ones scattered around both indoors and out.

The garden area was pretty cool - they had mixed scenic areas with what some might call "unusual" sculptures.  

These were kind of creepy because you'd see them glancing out at you from odd angles as you wound your way through the paths.

Then it was time for the creepy crawlies.

It would not surprise me in the least if little man became an Entomologist.  If it creeps and crawls and gives Mom the heebie jeebies he is all over it!  He was the official "cockroach wrangler" at his table.  Yeah....

They started off small with some meal worms and the beetle they turn into.  Bleh.

Then they moved onto Hissing Cockroaches.  Again, double bleh - these suckers are fast!  

Yes, that is little man holding all of these thus far.  Thankfully, only the Official Bug Guys were able to hold the scorpions.

I did hold the millipede though - that felt weird.

But not as weird as the tarantula.  Yes, I held a tarantula.  These babies are soft - like rabbit soft.  I had no idea.  The fact that the bottoms of their feet had something that stuck to my skin was a bit off-putting (and I can't tell you what it was exactly because I am not up on my arachnids, nor was I about to spend some quality time with it).  Little man got to pet it too though.

That right there was the highlight of his day.  He proclaimed that he loves Reiman Gardens and the bugs even more than he loves amusement parks and he is going to ask Santa for a tarantula for Christmas.  Hmmm.  Something tells me that I will be having a chat with Santa about bringing him something a little different (that doesn't involve live bugs for food) than a tarantula this year....

There are a few more photos on my Flickr page if anyone wanted to view them.