Butterflies

This spring, the preschool teacher at Fruitvale ordered some caterpillars and read books to the students about their transformation into butterflies. I got to see them hatch and was really amazed at this natural phenomenon. I decided to order some for Espen to do this summer. Last year, we found a cocoon of some kind up on my parents' property so I bought a butterfly garden to put it in so we could watch it hatch. It never did. :-( It came with a postcard for free butterfly larvae !! so all I had to do this year was send it in. I am all about FREE/ cheap stuff since our money seems to be tied up in our house right now. The pamphlet that came with our caterpillars said they would be in their larval stage for 7-10 days, then be in the chrysalids for 7-10 days. Well, we had full butterflies in about 10 total! They sent us 5 and guaranteed at least 3 of them would hatch. All 5 did, but the last one was a bit later than the others (formed his chrysalid upside down and didn't flap his wings enough to straighten them out so we released him about a day after the others). It was fun and we'll definitely do it again sometime.