The Butterfly Palace

Last Tuesday, we woke up in Branson, with big plans to lay by the pool all day. Unfortunately, the rain had other plans for us. My mom and niece were with us in the morning, and we decided to take the girls to The Butterfly Palace, thanks to some Facebook friend recommendations ;) 

I have always wanted to go, but honestly, we don't do a lot of the touristy things in Branson.... we shop, eat, and go to Silver Dollar City, but as for the rest of it- we've kind of been there, done that, since we've gone to Branson on vacations since I was little. 

Anyway, we thought a rainy day was the perfect day to be a tourist. 

We let each of the girls get their face painted, because it was only $5.00, which is crazy cheap compared to most face paintings at tourist places. 

I wish I had Adalyn's face on video when she saw her completed face painting for the first time. She was in love. 

The artist was amazing! He did such a wonderful job painting delicate details on all of the girls. 

Megan chose an Azure Butterfly. 

Gretchen wanted hers light blue and gold. 

All of the girls loved having their faces painted!

Afterwards, we went through the mirror maze, which Gretchen said we would escape, if we always stayed to the left, and she was right! 

Then we went to the science center to explore a few animals, and finally made our way in to the butterfly sanctuary. 

I had a butterfly land on my shirt and stay for a while. 

Megan had one land on her shoulder. 

The girls each got a little flower filled with gatorade that the butterflies would land on, a pair of binoculars, an explorer's hat, a magnify glass, and a butterfly guide. 

Megan loved being able to play explorer. 

The butterfly sanctuary was not Adalyn's favorite. In fact, she was pretty terrified and did not want a butterfly to land on her or get near her. 

And the humidity did a number on my hair! Ha! 

We said goodbye to Gee and Amelia, and went to Mel's Dinner for lunch. Each of us got a milkshake. 

And, we had a blast watching the waiters and waitresses sing. 

I told the girls I've been going to this restaurant since it's opened, and Gretchen said that it must be really old! 

After lunch, we tried to find Santa because sometimes he hangs out at the Christmas shop, but we didn't have an luck finding the real one. 

We did find the Santa chair though, and I know I have my picture on this from when I was a teenager! 

And the girls took their photo in the gigantic rocking chair. 

We left The Grand Village and made our way to the College of the Ozarks, where they have a museum. Someone on Facebook had recommended this, and I was excited because kids were free! 

They had wagons, cabins, quilts, dolls, cameo necklaces, antique furniture, stuffed animals, and a Bass Pro display.

Adalyn knew that all of the items in the museum were old and dead, and when she was the Bass Pro display she was sad for a minute because to her, it meant that Santa Claus was dead too! (She thinks Santa lives at the Bass Pro shop near our house, which she affectionately calls the North Pole.)

The girls were pretending they were in a fight with the bear. 

We left the museum, and went back to the condo, and the girls insisted on swimming, even though it was cold outside! 

We eventually made it back inside, took baths, had pizza, and curled up to watch TV. 

Wednesday morning, it was raining again, which meant another day of not being able to lay at the pool. Seriously, it was the only thing I wanted to do on this trip. 

But, our tickets from The Butterfly Palace were good through Thursday, so the girls asked if we could go back, and this time, Adalyn wasn't afraid! 

We had the best time exploring and catching butterflies! 

Afterwards, we watched a movie on The Monarch butterflies, and now the girls want to plant a lot of milkweed in our yard in Texas! 

We finished our trip through the mirror maze again! 

And took one final picture before we headed home.