Butterflies!

For her birthday Raquel received as one of her gifts a butterfly habitat. It came with a coupon for caterpillars that you send away for and receive in the mail. We waited until the end of May to make sure it was warm enough and that we were seeing butterflies out side before we sent away for our caterpillars. They came in a cup with five small caterpillars, which looked like they were dead. But within a few days they were up moving around and growing. The food was in the bottom of the cup and so all we had to do was watch them grow and grow! It was neat to see how big they got everyday, they really grow fast!

The growing caterpillars

Then after about a week they started hanging upside down on a paper disk that was attached to the lid. Then with in a few days they had all formed a chrysalis. Once they formed their chrysalis we removed them from the cup and attached them to the side of the butterfly garden. Raquel patiently waited for another week for the butterflies to emerged from their cocoons.

Natalya enjoying watching the butterflies

Getting ready to let them go in our front yard.

We enjoyed them for about 5 days, feeding them fresh cut watermelon and oranges and sugar water on flowers. We were leaving on a trip and so reluctantly had to let them go. The girls had fun taking the butterfly garden outside and letting the butterflies emerge from the habitat and watching as they flew around the garden. It was a neat experience for the whole family and one we want to do again next year.

Our butterflies!