Friday, May 3, 2013

Caterpillars to butterflies

Our caterpillars turned into butterflies! The kids were delighted. Although I am sad to say that only 7 of the 10 made it to adulthood. The kids loved getting up to check on them each day to see new butterflies emerging. I didn't know this but they actually have some sort of red fluid on them after they emerge. Our "butterfly pavilion" has a bunch of bright red liquid stains that are sort of creepy. I always thought of butterflies as being rather clean but this adventure has me second guessing that idea.

Ember wasn't thrilled about releasing them. She started crying because she was going to miss them. We reminded her that they are living creatures that need to live free and in the wild though and the tears soon turned to giggles after watching our winged friends discover a bright new open world.
Nothing quite like the magic of holding a living butterfly in your hand. 
 Everyone was very gentle and did a great job.
 Unfortunately I had a blurry spot on my camera lens that I didn't notice until after this pic.
Even Wren found the butterflies thrilling.

Have you ever done the mail order butterflies? Did they all live? I'm curious to know what other people's experience with them was.

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