Butterflys

 Jonah got this great butterfly hatching kit for his birthday last year. Since we had just moved, we didn't really have time to undertake raising butterflies. Then it got cold and took a while to warm up. So we waited patiently and finally, after Henry's birthday and all our house guests had come and gone, we decided to send away for our baby caterpillars. They came in a jar with all their food. They just ate and crawled around until finally one day, we saw they climbed up to the top of the jar and formed cocoons. It was neat but also kind of gross. They lived in the jar, crawling around on their food which they also pooped on. And for whatever reason, they made a lot of silk strings that were really tough to break up.

We followed the directions and moved them carefully into the special butterfly cage for the time when they would emerge from the cocoons. It was a little over a week and I was pretty much convinced they were all dead. Then one day, as I was walking by our school room, I noticed something moving around. It was all our butterflies! They had hatched without anyone noticing! So we quickly got them some flowers and sprinkled sugar nectar on them for the butterflies to eat. It was neat watching them eat. We kept them in the cage for a couple of days and then decided to let them go. The boys had so much fun watching them go and were actually able to hold several of them, as they landed on Jonah while they were leaving! Overall it was really fun, but it was kind of gross and I really don't want to do it again!

 So cute!

 Henry enjoyed watching the butterflies as the left

 Love this little guy!