Butterflies

For Christmas, Emily, Jon and the kids gave us a butterfly kit.  It came with a certificate that you could send in to get five caterpillars.  I decided that spring break would be a fun time to start this little adventure since we would all be home to watch and observe our caterpillars change into butterflies. 

 

Our caterpillars arrived at the beginning of the week and the kids could not stop watching them.  It was hard for them to understand why it took longer than a day for them to change into butterflies. 

After about a week of watching them get fatter and fatter, they finally started making their chrysalises.  We moved them out of the cup and into their habitat and again started watching and waiting.  This was definitely a good lesson in learning how to be patient! 

Finally, one day when we got home from school, we had our first butterfly!  Over the next several days, we watched as all 5 butterflies emerged from their chrysalises.  The kids loved taking turns giving them fresh oranges and watermelon to eat.

After watching them fly around their habitat for a few days, we finally decided to let them go this past Saturday.  We invited Addison, Aubrey, Ryan and our neighbor Jolea over to help us with the release. 

It took the butterflies a few minutes, but they finally flew away.  The kids were excited and sad all at the same time!  They chased them around the yard for a while and were even able to catch a few of them before letting them go forever. 

If you have never done this with your kids, I would highly recommend it.  Parker, Eden and Lily learned so much by watching the life cycle process and now every time we see a Monarch butterfly, they wonder if perhaps it is one of the ones that we let go!