Some Library Fun

Here is one of the Public Library Events I've been talking about.  I took my neices to see "The Butterfly Guy." He is a lepidopterist who travels the east coast talking about the differences between butterflies and moths, butterfly adaptations (mimicry, camouflage, etc.), and the monarch migration. At the end of the program, everyone got to make a cool butterfly shirt. Here are the ones my neices made:

They laid out the shirts (with newspaper inside) on the grass. They collected fallen twigs, leaves and grasses to add some nature. They also placed contruction paper cut-outs of butterflies and dragonflies where they wanted. Then they used Rit fabric dye in spray bottles to spray the shirt. As you can see, Alex was heavy with the spray while Olivia went for a more speckled look. They are both adorable (although Olivia's didn't show very well in the picture). Afterwards, they just picked up the cut-outs and other materials and let them dry in the sun for 20 minutes or so. Of course we had to go into the library and check out books while they dried :). When we got home, I put the shirts in the dryer on high heat to set the colors so they wouln't fade. Aren't they sweet?

Alex and Olivia at G. Wash's home, Mount Vernon