Butterflies

For Christmas, Grandma Thomason got Catherine a butterfly garden. We sent away for the caterpillars and the girl's anxiously awaited for them to come in the mail. They finally came and the caterpillars looked like little black rice specks. Not very exciting when you are expecting to see caterpillars and butterflies. They grew so fast though, within about 10 days they had grown huge and were hanging upside down. After a few more days, a hard shell encased all of the caterpillars and they moved on to their pupa stage which was the grossest for me because I then had to transfer them from their enclosed little containers to the garden. This involved me ripping the paper they were attached to off of the lid and pinning it to the side of the net. They were nasty-looking and they wobbled and it really wasn't my favorite thing. Then, they hung there for almost 10 days before the first one hatched into a beautiful painted lady butterfly. We had two the first day, then by Sunday morning 9 had hatched. The last 3 hatched on Monday and now there are no more. We released them this morning. It was a very fun experience, but I am glad it is over. The girls want me to order more, but I think it might be a once a year sort of deal. They are so beautiful though and I got to hold them while I was letting them go which was really neat.