As usual, months later, I am still trying to get caught up! :) So here is the long story with lots of pics about our experience with the caterpillars. I am not a bug person AT ALL! I hate them, would rather they all be dead and never reproduce, however, I know God created them for a reason and I want my children to appreciate the wonder that is metamorphosis. So, since you don't ever have to touch them, I decided this was my best bet. They come in these cups with their food and it tells you not to open it so you don't contaminate their food! Best reason ever! So here they are on my cluttered counter the day we got them.
And then they grew and grew and frankly the food got gross looking:
Then they started hanging upside down to make their chrysalis. Let me just state that my only experience was with silk worms and they just wrap themselves into this cute little cocoon. That is NOT how this happened. They violently jerk and squeeze this waxy looking liquid that forms their shell. It is not sweet or magical, However, my girls didn't care, they still thought it was cool.
So we moved them to their butterfly garden tent and just waited.
They all started "hatching" and it was fun to keep watching to see when the next one would come out. It took about two days for all 10 of them. We had one that just didn't develop right and I kept thinking it would fix itself and it didn't.
(Now let me take a moment to say that I also didn't know that butterflies have meconium. Just like babies, they have a special newborn "poop" and it is disgusting. It looks like blood all down the netting. GROSS!)
So, since I wasn't sure that the abnormal one would make it overnight, we decided to let it go before all the others. We decided to let it go while the kids were asleep, but Hannah caught us! Here is Hannah with our special little butterfly.
Cindi and the boys were here when the butterflies hatched and were ready to be released. We tried to get them to do what we wanted, but with freedom, they didn't stick around long for pictures.
Hannah loved touching them, but Rachel wasn't too sure!
This was the last one that we let go and it just landed on our tree. They were really pretty and fun, but not as cute and sweet as I thought it would be! I still am glad that we did it! :)
