The first flutterers of spring often show up near the end of wintertime, providing us a pretty preview of what's soon to come.
But before the winged favorites of the warmer months flutter through our worlds, something rather enchanting alights at a family-fun spot near Rose Bowl Stadium: Butterfly Season, a winter-into-spring tradition at Kidspace Children's Museum.
If you know the educational destination, you know that all sorts of engaging activities will be on the calendar, giving children the chance to know more about the beautiful bugs and their wing-tastic ways.
There is another dimension, however, that many Southern Californians look forward to, year after year: Kids can adopt a live caterpillar, all to provide a closer look at a butterfly's fascinating lifecycle.
Adoptions and activities will begin taking flight on Thursday, March 9, when Butterfly Season begins at Kidspace Children's Museum.
Bug safaris, butterfly crafts, and a "pollinator takeover" are on the multi-week schedule, as are opportunities to admire real butterflies and caterpillars.
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"In honor of the predicted super bloom this year and the record number of Monarch butterflies migrating across California, we've created a Butterfly Season that's bigger and more beautiful than ever before," said Kidspace CEO Lisa Clements.
"This year we've added an interactive art installation in the courtyard by contemporary designers Héctor Esrawe and Ignacio Cadena as a tribute to the Monarch butterfly's cultural and ecological ties to Mexico."
"Los Trompos" will invite museum visitors to sit inside the vividly hued structures, which take their inspiration from toy tops. The installation's effervescent interactive element? The structures can be spun, top-like, when people work together.
"Butterfly Season is an opportunity to celebrate a creature that is both extremely familiar and quite extraordinary. No matter what lens you use to examine butterflies – metaphorical, aesthetic, cultural, or scientific – they are fascinating."
"We want our guests to enjoy and appreciate butterflies from all those perspectives," said Clements.
Reserve your ticket, and find out more about this sweet springtime celebration, now.