Butterflies

One of your coolest birthday gifts this year was a cup of caterpillars from your friend Micah.  It came with everything we needed to watch them grow and transform into butterflies.  It was perfect timing because this month you were also learning about insects at school so you already knew a lot about caterpillars and butterflies.

They started out as teeny little guys but they sure grew fast!

It was around this time that I started to feel both fascinated and revolted by these critters sitting in my kitchen.

Getting ready to form their chrysalides.

This is the point when you decided to name them:  Hailey (her chrysalis fell to the floor of the cup), Jarsen (the low hanging one), Maybloo, Mayblar, and Maybleek (no distinction between the last 3).

Our first butterfly!  We noticed one morning that two of the chrysalides had turned dark, which was a sign they would emerge soon.  You left for school and within an hour I walked by and saw we already had a butterfly!  Unfortunately, over the course of 2 days, ALL 5 emerged while you were at school, so you didn't get to see any of them come out, although, neither did I actually.  So maybe it wouldn't have mattered if you were here anyway.  They're sneaky I guess.

Here are the last 2 just after they emerged and their wings are still a little crumpled.

Finally it was time to let them go.  When I carried the container outside they got a little rowdy from being moved so I thought maybe we'd let them settle back down before opening the zipper but you were so eager you wanted to do it right away so 4 of them flew out in quite a hurry.

But there was one who stayed behind for a few minutes.  We decided this was Jarsen and got to watch him a little longer.

Once he left the container he flew over and landed on your pool toys for awhile before leaving the yard.  So long Jarsen!