Grand Rapids Public Museum and Giant Bugs!!

The Grand Rapids Public Museum has an exhibit of giant bugs through the end of the month. On a whim, I decided to take Olivia to see the exhibit the other afternoon. She really enjoyed wandering around most of the museum. Sorry for the long entry, but these really are the highlights of our trip.

One of Olivia's first "driving" experiences!

Having a tea party in the doll room.

Olivia checking out some of the fossils she could actually touch.

The ones in the case didn't interest her too much.

In the museum, there is a section of Old Grand Rapids circa late 1800's.

One of the fun things to see there is this old fashioned bike.

Olivia loves sitting on this bike (and was well aware of the fact that she couldn't reach the pedals), but I was very nervous to leave her side just to take this picture.

Here Olivia was checking out the local grocery store.

On the third floor of the museum, there are some habitat exhibits of animals of West Michigan.

Once Olivia realized the animals weren't real, she was very excited to check out the various exhibits.

Here she is checking out a wetland exhibit.

(Sorry about the following section where there are some sideways pictures that shouldn't be this way...)

We finally made our way to the bug exhibit. I think the thing that impressed me the most was that all of these giant bugs moved in some way. At first Olivia was a little aprehensive about this, but she soon realized the bugs were fun to look at.

This is a worms view of a praying mantis.

I showed Olivia how to do rubbings, so here she is trying to make her own bug.

This is a caterpillar.

Honestly, I'm not sure what type of bug this was...a friend who also saw the exhibit said it was a stick bug...

I really loved this grasshopper!

Especially the can of spray....

And what is a bug exhibit without bugs that you can hold and touch.
Here Olivia is chaneling her inner scientist. And yes, she did touch and hold the bugs. She said it tickled!

Here are two rhino beetles fighting. If you look closely, right in front of the beetles you will see three holes in the floor of the platform. There is a tunnel the kids could crawl through and then poke their heads up in the holes. Look at the far right hole, that is Olivia.

There was also a giant spider web for the kids to climb.

Olivia wasn't so sure about the climbing, so....

....she crawled under it!

We wrapped up our trip to the museum with a second ride on the carousel.

What a fun day, and boy was she tired. She fell asleep before we even got home!