Flight of the Butterfly at the Kidspace Museum | Pasadena, CA.

PhotoJournalist: Jesse Watrous
Journalist: Sheri Conway

PASADENA, CALIFORNIA - JUNE 5, 2016: Kidspace Museum is a place where children are encouraged to touch and experience everything. For the last 20 years, May has been the month to experience all things butterfly.

Caterpillar adoption begins in February when caterpillars and habitats are available in the museum shop. Children observe first-hand the life-cycle of a caterpillar as it goes from crawling around fattening itself up on leaves, to molting into a chrysalis, and finally emerging as a butterfly.

EXPERIENCING THE LIFE OF A BUTTERFLY

At Kidspace the butterflies are Painted Ladies which are a particularly vivid shade of orange set off by black and white spots and edging. Guests are invited to bring their butterflies to the annual butterfly release party held in late May when the museum releases about 1,000 butterflies (assuming they cooperate and leave the boxes!).

While awaiting the butterfly release, there’s plenty to see and do. Though butterfly-related events are added to the normal schedule, the museum offers a number of interactive exhibits on a regular basis.

The newest of these, Arroyo Adventures, opened in April of this year. It contains exhibits such as Harvest Corner where plants are in various stages of growth, the Flood and Erosion Plain, and my personal favorite, Mud and Clay. The Pepper Tree Music Jam can also be found here with musical instruments just waiting for wee hands to bring their songs to life.

RUN, JUMP, TOUCH, AND PLAY

The Galvin Physics Forest brings the magic of physics to life with giant pendulums, ball launchers, air cannons, tennis ball roller coasters and blocks. This is definitely the place where touching is not only encouraged but required.

Other exhibits offer bugs, rocks, shells and places to work off some of the energy and excitement with climbing towers.

When the time nears for the butterfly release, the Just Kidding music group attracts visitors to the amphitheater nestled in the trees. Teachers from the center sing kid-centric, interactive songs about trees, Just Kidding Bandfrogs, riding a bus, wings, imagination and more. They encourage kids to join them in singing their butterfly song, sung to the tune of “I’m a Little Teapot”.

The excitement builds in the amphitheater as all other exhibits are abandoned in favor of the day’s main event. The kids are as colorful as the butterflies in their netting butterfly wings and antennae. Parents try to juggle snapping pictures of their children, keeping a hawk’s eye on their whereabouts, and answering the plethora of questions which fill a child’s curious mind.