Saturday was the perfect day for the Monarch Festival, a day to release the monarch butterflies and learn about the journey they were about to embark on from Minnesota to Mexico.
It was a beautifully organized and well run event held at the lake near my house. Great music, dances and food. Lots of educational activities and projects for the kids...I'm pretty sure we didn't miss a single one. We made butterfly garden seed balls, went on a mock journey following the trail the monarchs will take, played monarch bingo, made torn paper postcards, contributed to the making of the butterfly kites, and ran the obstacle course. But by far the most exciting event for the boys was steamroller printing put together by the wonderful people at art org.
It starts by the cutting out of your design on a sticky backed material and pressing it down on to your cardboard.
walking it over to the table to get the ink applied
Then the absolute best part...watching the steam roller, pass over your block transferring the image onto paper.
They even had the kids sign and number their work and they got to stamp an official seal into the corner.
I found these adorable pictures of the boys and their artwork here and here
For great educational information and plenty of ideas for activities you can do with your kids, check out the Monarch Watch website.
Wishing all the butterflies a safe journey to Mexico!