Bye, Bye, Butterflies ...

Last Friday, the first two of our 10 butterflies had emerged, by Saturday all but 2 had completed the transformation, and by Sunday they were all (mostly) butterflies. Just like the kit said, the chrysalis will become very dark right before the butterfly is ready. This first picture is cool because if you look closely you can actually see the spots on the soon to be unfurled wings.


Will was fascinated. These poor butterflies were more than a little traumatized, by all the "love" from our 2 year old. Will is definitely our little seeker, he is very hands on with everything and wanted to "pet" them all the time. ;-)


Here is a cool sequence of one emerging (the one on the bottom, not the one towards the top - this one got stuck and lived like that for a few days - sad) ...


Within a matter of minutes, their wings go from scrunched up ...

... to fully formed.


After 2 days of watching them in the habitat, and two tragedies involving these hardy little insects, we had a sunny day that was perfect for setting them free.









Its funny - I had two different people tell me that they would settle in our garden in our yard and we would probably be able to observe them for a while on our plants. Neither person had the Will-Jared (but, mostly Will) combo. With the first taste of freedom, all 8 surviving painted ladies were OUT - up and over the fence and into the great beyond!

It was a great project, though. The boys learned a lot and we had such fun in the process. As we walked inside after the last butterfly made it over the fence, Jared said to me, "Mommy, I am really going to miss those butterflies."

And, while I'm not sure I will "miss" the butterflies, I'm glad we did it. I'm looking forward to more opportunities like this to teach them in the future.