Fly, Butterfly, Fly!

As I mentioned on the last blog, Grandma and Grandpa Tweryon got Ellie caterpillars and a butterfly habitat for Easter.  We observed closely and watched the amazing change as the caterpillar ate and ate and grew bigger each day.  Then one by one, the caterpillars crawled to the top of the jar to form their chrysalis.  I then transferred them into the butterfly habitat and Ellie added twigs and grass.  Sugar water was absorbed into a paper towel and also placed in the habitat.  As a defense mechanism, the chrysalis' would often shake to scare predators (which was neat to watch).  After the first butterfly hatched, we waited several hours as the butterfly flapped it's wings to get the blood flowing.  Of course Ellie called Grandma and Grandpa to let them know a butterfly arrived.  After Hadley's soccer game, they came over to watch us release our first one.

The red in the bowl is not blood, but left over coloring from the butterfly's wings.

The butterfly landed on flowers near by.

More butterflies hatched and were ready to go.  Fly, butterfly, fly!

Ellie observing the butterfly from a twig.

Checking out the empty chrysalis

The next story and picture makes me laugh.  Usually I don't laugh when my child is crying, but it was too funny.  We have now released all our butterflies so I was getting ready to untape the white paper where the chrysalis' were hanging.  Ellie asked what I was going to do with it.  I told her I was going to throw them away.  She immediately started freaking out!  I mean FREAKING OUT...crying uncontrollably!  I asked her why she was so upset.  She responded with, "You can't throw away my caterpillars." As much as I tried explaining that her caterpillars were not in the chrysalis, it didn't work.  Developmentally, I think it's too hard for a 3 year old to understand.

Ellie loved observing this whole process of metamorphosis.  Her brother ended up getting a gift card to Walmart for his birthday so we purchased a frog habitat and are now watching and caring for tadpoles.