Aquarium in Chattanooga

CU-RI-OS-I-TY:  A STRONG DESIRE TO KNOW OR LEARN SOMETHING

This is the word that comes to mind as one of my favorite words when it comes to raising our girls.  Each day, I want to surround them with experiences and activities that constantly spike their curiosity.  It is important to always be learning and always see things in a different light.  No matter how many times we go, the girls always want to go back to the Chattanooga Aquarium for more.  Their curiosity gets the best of them when it comes to observing everything the aquarium has to offer.  With it being only five minutes from where we live, we are so lucky as to get to pop in often.  However, it is an amazing day trip from surrounding cities.  The scale of the Chattanooga Aquarium makes it easy to navigate, especially for younger children.  Yesterday, when I picked up Caroline from school and Sarah from ballet, we decided that our rainy day activity needed to be visiting the butterflies.  Caroline does not have an after school activity on Tuesdays because I love having at least one afternoon to explore Chattanooga and allow the girls to have time to have fun together and just be kids!



Ok, so as much as we love to visit the butterflies, when I found these dresses, they were a must for Caroline and Sarah, and I have had them tucked away until an afternoon like yesterday.  I know the dresses may be sold out, but I also found these and this, both which are just as cute.  As for me, I LOVE a good weekday throw on dress and this one is perfect, plus you all know my love of stripes!  I happen to have gotten these gold shoes last winter when we went to Disney World for winter break and I noticed they are still available along with this as an option too.  I love these tennis shoes because I can run around with the girls, but being as short as I am, these actually have a platform, which is nice when just in casual clothes.  I love tennis shoes with dresses and so does Caroline, so she picked out these for herself and Sarah to wear this fall.  You may all laugh, but my jean jacket was bought in 1996, the year before I graduated high school and then this same jean jacket traveled though Europe with me when I graduated Furman.  I still occasionally throw it on, which is so crazy to me and to think it has been around as long as it has!  I guess what I am saying is I love a good jean jacket and love these I found for the girls last spring, which are still out.  Their cute monogrammed pink bows were mailed to the girls from one of my closest friends, actually my maid of honor in my wedding.  She found them on Etsy and the monogram font is so unique!  She knows me oh so well to have picked these out for the girls!

I love Sarah's sweet little finger out ready for a butterfly.  She wanted one to land on her finger so badly.  Finally, Caroline transferred one from her hand to Sarah's hand.  

Did you know, the butterfly on Sarah is called the Blue Morpho?  She was excited this is the one she got to crawl on her finger because blue is her favorite color.  It has a 5-8 inch wingspan , eats juice from rotting fruit and its natural habitat we learned is a tropical forest.  When it opened its wings, the blue color was strikingly beautiful.  The blue color comes from light reflecting off the overlapping scales on the butterfly wings and the brown underside is known to camouflage the butterfly as it is eating rotting fruit on the floor of the forest.  Interesting, right?!?  The girls and I thought so!

The girls and I had a great afternoon learning and exploring.  We only were there from about 4:00 to 5:45, but sometimes that is all it takes to take care of that daily curiosity craving in all of us.  XOXO