Where'd it go?

We got a butterfly kit for Zoe and she's been surprisingly interested in the whole process.

Five tiny caterpillars arrived in a cup...

Day 1

It seriously is just like the book says, they eat and eat and seem to quadruple in size every

hour.

Day 2

They started shedding their exoskeleton and the food looked gross, so I stopped documenting the process for a few days, but they got huge. 

Seriously though, they ended up about 2.5 inches long and at more than 10 times their original size. 

Then one morning, this happened...

Four chrysalises(chrysalii?).

Ohhh the dictionary says chrysalides is also an option. 

Yes, we started with five caterpillars. One guy never grew any bigger and eventually died. 

He taught us so much. 

During this time we talked a lot about what was going on. That the caterpillars were turning into butterflies and soon they would come out of the chrysalides with wings and we'd set them free. 

She got a bit confused...

Suddenly every small creature was supposed to turn into a butterfly and fly away.


The butterflies emerged on the day that it was randomly 47 degrees in May. You're not supposed to release them until it's always over 50 degrees.

So we fed them and kept them in their little mesh house for a few days. Zoe loved talking about them and what they ate.

"Oranges!"

"Flowers!"

"Water sugar!"

Yesterday was the big release day.

We had another casualty. This guy had really lopsided wings and couldn't stay right side up when flying, so it kept crashing into the ground. I think it was just trying to help me grab a picture - what a sacrifice.

During Zoe's bedtime routine she recaps her day. When I asked her about the butterflies she said, "Fly away! Where'd it go? SKY!"