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Discovering Butterflies

We love to take walks during the spring when flowers and trees are in bloom. The kids can get laser-focused on just making it to the park, so we play games along the way to make every step of our journey a little more meaningful.

Walks are full of teachable moments and there is no greater classroom than firsthand experience, especially outdoors. On Saturday, we counted how many different colors of Iris we saw during our walk and photographed each one. When we came across a flower that wasn’t an Iris we stopped and talked about it, too.


This is Bridgette on her lavender Schwinn, which was actually Juliette’s third bicycle! Now, my baby is riding it. I just savor these precious kids! I am always aware that with each passing day, they are one step closer to springing from the nest. Like the little birds in the nest we found on Easter, one day, they’ll fly away!

That’s why all these teachable moments are so important to me. I want my children to embrace the fullness of life that is so illuminated through art and nature. I feel grateful that there is a constant and ready supply of both in Oklahoma City. We turn walks into hikes in the urban core. When we pass public art, we pull off the road and into parking lots to discuss it. I try to explain its value and purpose to my kids.

Opportunities for local adventure all around us!


This white iris is growing in Perle Mesta Park. Mesta was the daughter of the man who founded the big Skirvin Hotel in downtown Oklahoma City. She was known for throwing lavish parties in Washington D.C. and at one time served as ambassador to the tiny country of Luxembourg. The Mesta Park Neighborhood Association has done an amazing job with this park. It’s an anchor for the neighborhood and even features a sandpit for volleyball that people use all the time.


In addition to irises, we saw a ton of roses in bloom.

Hey, Shirley, this is Squirrely. You got your ears on? 😉

More teachable moments for my kids arrive via urban wildlife, which I really appreciate since we live near the concrete jungle. This weekend, we’ve seen Robins, Bluejays, Cardinals, Pigeons, and squirrels in ample supply. Butterflies galore, too.

We’ve had a lot of rain lately as well as the promise of really bad weather including tornadoes. It’s like the squirrels, birds and butterflies are watching the Weather Channel or something. While they are already highly adapted to this urban environment they are downright fearless when it comes to digging for food in our yard. Either that or I’ve just become a regular fixture with my camera and they’re not afraid of me.

Robin in the Lamplight. She practically eats out of my hand. It makes me happy.
I took this picture on Friday at dusk. This is the momma Robin whose baby birds we discovered in a nest in privet in the front yard on Easter Sunday. We were hunting eggs when Robert mentioned that I might want to carefully back out of the flower bed because there was a bird in a nest about six inches from my head. The kids were absolutely thrilled to make this discovery.


This is the same Robin. She’s giving me the once over.

Sullivan catching butterflies.

Discovering a bird sitting on eggs while we were all hunting eggs on Easter Sunday is a moment our family will never forget. For a split second all five of us stood there staring at each other slightly perplexed over the highly unlikely, though the plausible chance that we might have grabbed an actual bird egg while hunting colored eggs. I cherish these moments of intimacy and laughter. I wish they weren’t so rare. The dry obligations of life really get in the way, people.

On Saturday, the kids and I set out on a two-block adventure to count all the different types of flowers we could find. We didn’t get very far. Just three blocks away we discovered a butterfly encampment in a white lilac bush in Teresa’s garden. For nearly an hour the kids tried to catch butterflies.


This yellow butterfly is an Orange Sulphur Butterfly or Alfalfa Butterfly. Bridgette gave it her own name: Honey. Sweet! With its lime green eyes, yellow wings and pink legs I think we could call it Malibu Barbie Butterfly!

I couldn’t help but recall the poem, The Butterfly, a popular selection in Holocaust literature. It was written by a child, Pavel Friedman, living in the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II.

The last, the very last,
So richly, brightly, dazzlingly yellow.
Perhaps if the sun’s tears would sing
against a white stone…


Such, such a yellow
Is carried lightly ‘way up high.
It went away I’m sure because it wished to
kiss the world goodbye.

(Click here to read the rest.)

Those are some nice antennas you have there, sir.

That’s a lovely polka dot dress, miss. Might I inquire where you purchased it? (This is a Buckeye Butterfly.)

This is Gray Hairstreak Butterfly, however, I much prefer Bridgette’s name for it: Blueberry.

This butterfly is known as a Painted Lady. Sullivan named it Tiger Butterfly. Bridgette called it the very sophisticated Halloweenie.

After the kids and I returned home from the Lilac Bush Adventure, I grabbed my iPad and returned to take a picture of a butterfly for Instagram. After about 50 tries, I got a picture of the wingspan on a Viceroy Butterfly. It looks very similar to the Monarch Butterfly, which passes through Oklahoma City every year on its way to the Michoacán Forest in Central Mexico.

Bridgette holds a nest with a broken shell. Robin-egg blue is one of nature’s best colors!!

On Sunday, we took the kids to the new Children’s Garden in the newly renovated Myriad Gardens in Downtown Oklahoma City. We found this tiny nest blowing around the outskirts of the garden and nearby a broken robin eggshell. I hope the baby birds learned to fly! This, of course, is what I hope for my own children. Next Turtle Tuesday I’ll post more about our adventure to the Children’s Garden and also Oklahoma City’s Martin Nature Park. Both are just terrific!

Gen X Blog Jennifer Chronicles

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8 Comments

  1. jenx67

     Oklahoma has gotten very good at planting shrubs and trees that attract butterflies! I hope you enjoyed your walk!

  2. Laurel

    Very nice post.  Think I’ll take a walk:)

  3. Andi Fisher

     Glorious photos, love the squirrel!  I don’t know how you get the butterfly photos, they always fly away when I try to do it.  The robin is incredibly special story, I am amazed that she will almost eat out of your hand when she has her babies close by, so cool!

  4. jenx67

    Thanks, Mom!! I wish you’d been with us. Soon!!

  5. jenx67

    Thanks, Andi! I nearly went blind focusing on all those flitty little wings!

  6. yogiabb

    Great post Jen, your kids are so blessed to have such a Mom as you! 

  7. Andi Perullo

    What a lovely experience! The butterfly shots are fabulous.

  8. Gracie

    Jen–
     
    What a beautiful post.  I felt like I was walking right along with you and the children on your Nature Walk.  What a ‘Fun Filled Educational experience.  (All for Free).  Ican almost smell the roses.  I so enjoyed the re-naming of the butterflies — Inspirational!  Children have such a vivid imagination.

    Thanks for sharing.  Isn’t it wonderful to know —  God has a name for all of HIS creatures and HE knows us by name too.

    Hugs–  Gracie  

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