Spring is in the Air

The last week of February we had a special delivery. Our caterpillars arrived. Little did I know that these little creatures were going to be so fun. See them at the tippy top of the container? They are teeny here. And icky here. We had a total of 5 caterpillars and it was gross seeing all 5 of them in there. I'm not a caterpillar fan. Double ick! We noticed them at this size about 8 days after they arrived.
Then 3 or 4 days later we saw them do this.
Then within a day we saw the chrysalis appear. It is a bizarre thing to watch. How in the WORLD does this become a butterfly? I don't get it.
After they were in the chrysalis we were to wait for them to turn a darker color and then move them to our butterfly net. 4 of our 5 attached at the top of the container but 1 didn't make the climb. We put it in the net too, just in case it was still good.
On March 17th we saw that one butterfly made it's way out of the chrysalis. I wanted to watch this happen but we never managed to catch them exiting the chrysalis. See the lighter chrysalis - that's the empty one. Within 2 days they all emerged. The one that didn't hang with the others did become a butterfly but it had a torn wing. It was sad to see it flop around, it eventually died.
Here are the kids observing this latest development.Pretty neat huh?On Thursday we decided to set them all free. If you really look you will see one butterfly in center right and the damaged butterfly on the left of that butterfly.
The kids had a blast with this science project. See the butterfly on the rim?And the butterfly took a leap and landed on the ground. Before we knew it they all took off on their adventure to the big outdoors. Perfect timing too with all the pollen in much abundance.Here is one before it escaped our habitat.I wish we had the pretty yellow butterfly but this was fun even if it isn't the prettiest butterfly I've ever seen. :)
Change is happening all around us these days. It really feels like spring!