Two Saturdays ago, we decided to go to the Heard Museum. It was a beautiful day and I had been wanting to go for quite a while since I'd heard some good things about it. It did not disappoint. The Heard is in McKinney. It is a small museum but packed with all kinds of great natural science stuff from fossils to sea shells to live animals to dioramas. The sand pit above was kind of funny. They had a dig for dinosaurs thing but unlike most museums I've seen that have this, this sandpit had plastic dinosaurs rather than bones. Kelsay is really into dinosaurs since watching "The Good Dinosaur" so she loved it.
This was in the seashell room. It is a giant clam shell. It was one of the few displays that we could touch. They had some really beautiful shells and some that had been carved for decoration in the 1800's.
Here, Kelsay is walking like an insect through the grass. In the inside animal displays they had screech owls, lemurs and probably a dozen different kind of snakes both venomous and non-venomous. They had several rattlers and it kind of took me back to the good ol' Big Red Indian days.
After we did the inside part of the meseum, we headed outside. They had miles of walking trails through natural habitats of prairie and wetlands. They also had outside animal exhibits and a butterfly house. The butterfly house was closed but we got to see some butterflies in the butterfly gardens. Outside animals included deer, a raccoon, and a capybara, the world's largest rodent (pictured below).
After viewing the animals we went on the welands trail. We saw turtles and ducks as well as lots of different kinds of butterflies and bugs. We also saw a snake tail sticking out of brush on the side of the path.
We would have liked to of stayed longer but the museum closed at 5. Maddy bought a 67 cent magnifying glass in the gift shop. She was greatly disappointed with it. We'll have to try to get her a better one sometime. The girls posed for pics as owls and raccoons before we left.
If you get the chance to go, I highly recommend The Heard if you are a nature/outdoor/conservation lover. They also have a dinosaur exhibit but it is only open in fall and winter for some reason.
In other news, Maddy did the big chop. She had been going back and forth about her hair for quite sometime. Finally she decided she was really sick of the tangles so she got it cut. She gave the hairstylist a piece of paper that said, "I want my hair cut up to my arm hips." I love it. Mornings are so much better and I think Maddy has really enjoyed her hair like this. Plus it just looks super cute and like she is growing up!
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brittany