When the weather turns wintery, our family hits up one of Ottawa’s many wonderful museums. We have a number of different memberships because the museums offer such fabulous spaces to take the kids when the temperatures are too frigid for outdoor play (which we’ve seen a lot this year already). Because we are such frequent visitors, I’m always grateful when there are new museum exhibits worth checking out.

So, with that in mind, I thought I would blog about a few of the recently added museum exhibits. Over the past week we have visited both the Butterflies in Flight exhibit at the Canadian Museum of Nature, and the DreamWorks Animation exhibit at the Canadian Museum of History.

Butterflies in Flight is a small but wonderful exhibit. You have to buy tickets in addition to museum entry, but it is free for museum members. You have to reserve a time for entry – and that’s a good thing – because you wouldn’t want it to be too crowded when you head in to meet the butterflies. You can reserve your time and tickets ahead of time online, or at the museum front desk.

When you enter the exhibit you will see the ‘butterfly nursery’ and observe how butterflies emerge from a chrysalis (are anyone else’s kids fans of ‘The Hungry Caterpillar’ book?).

You may want to wear layers, because it is pretty warm inside the tropical environment and you don’t want to be caught in your winter coat. You will get to walk around the flowering plants and check out hundreds of live butterflies flying around. And you may also want to wear bright colours (the butterflies are more likely to land on you if they think you’re a flower).

Just a heads up, this exhibit might not be for everyone. My daughter Rowan was a little scared at first with all of the butterflies flying around. I also witnessed a few other kids who were really freaked out by the butterflies landing on them, and one mother had to take her kid out. But, if you think your kids wouldn’t be scared by this, then I HIGHLY recommend this exhibit.

The Butterflies in Flight exhibit is on now until April 2. If you are planning on visiting on a weekend, then I recommend booking your time slot ahead of time, it can get busy. You shouldn’t have any problems if you visit on a weekday. We visited on a Wednesday and had no problem getting whatever time we wanted when once we arrived at the museum.

One of the other new museum exhibits currently on display is the DreamWorks Animation exhibit at the Museum of History. Are your kids fans of Trolls? Mine certainly are, not to mention other DreamWorks movies such as Shrek, Madagascar and How to Train Your Dragon. So, we were definitely excited to check out this exhibition.

The exhibition features over 350 items including rare and never-before-seen concept drawings, models and original artworks, interviews and interactive displays from DreamWorks favourite animated classics.

But forget the animation drawings…my kid was just excited to dress up like Princess Poppy from Trolls. That Poppy wig has certainly seen better days.

To be honest, we were a little disappointed with this exhibit, at least for little kids. There are lots of lovely things to look at, but there weren’t as many “hands on” activities as I would have liked to see. I’m still glad we checked it out, but a lot of the displays were geared towards an older crowd.

I would recommend the DreamWorks exhibit for older kids. There is plenty for older children, preteens and teens to read and explore. I saw some older school children having a wonderful time learning more about animation and how to create their own storyboards. So, if your kids are interested in animation or happen to be diehard DreamWorks fans – this is one museum exhibit you won’t want to miss.