Butterflies!

Gracie got alot of neat presents for her birthday but one that has kept on growing was a Butterfly garden from Gingy and Poppop! I use to do this with my first graders so I was excited to get to do this with Gracie! It couldn't have come at a more perfect time because she had been learning about the process and change from a Caterpillar to butterfly at school and we have some books on it here at home. We started out with larva that ate and ate and tripled in size to caterpillars. It was amazing how fast they grew! Then we watched them make their chrysalis and once they were ready we moved them to our butterfly garden. There they hung out for about a week and then they broke free and we had five little butterflies! Gracie was so excited! We gave them flowers and sugar water to eat and watched them for five days. We really were only suppose to watch them in the habitat for a couple of days and then let them go but G became very attached to them. We told her from the beginning that we couldn't keep them and she understood and never had a problem with it until they actually turned into butterflies. When she asked why we had to let them go I said because they need to make other friends outside. She said, "mommy they don't need to make anymore friends their are five of them in there!" This is true so I tried again. I said, they need to find some more flowers to eat. She said, "mommy, we give them plenty of flowers so they don't need anymore." Really....she is just too smart!:) So, I tried again and told her they needed to fly up in the trees and be able to get exercise and spread their wings out and the habitat was not big enough for that. She took that one better!:) She did well when we let them go! She was happy for them and told them goodbye. We went on a bike ride after and when we came back daddy took her on a butterfly hunt to see if they could see them! Gracie thought she saw one in a tree which made her happy! Here are a few pictures before we let them go today! I wish I had gotten pictures of the whole process but I just didn't get it this time! There is always next spring!:) (By the way, if you have children this is such a fun thing to do and I highly recommend it! You buy the butterfly garden and then send off for the larva. Then you can save the garden and reuse it year after year. You just have to reorder the larva!) Our Butterfly Garden!
One butterfly!

It was hard to get a picture of them inside the garden but their were five and they were painted lady butterflies!

Gracie and her butterflies!

Two of them were stuck together so Daddy got them out which was neat for Gracie to see them out of their habitat up close!

Notice her hands...she doesn't want to try and touch them~HA!

Daddy put them down and they finally got unstuck and flew off!

The last one flying away...it is on the right side in between the habitat and Daddy's leg. Should have zoomed in but did the best I could with Lillie in my arms too!