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Thursday, June 19, 2008

Birthday Butterflies

My daughter loves to be outside. She loves flowers, worms, and bugs. After contemplating a couple of different options, we decided to get her the Butterfly Garden for her birthday. I ordered it a couple of weeks before her birthday to make sure we would get it in time. Well, it came 2 days after I ordered it. The box said open immediately contains live butterflies. So much for waiting until her birthday!! Well, the box actually contained live caterpillars. It was really difficult to get a good shot of those little guys. The container housed 5 tiny caterpillars. The gooey stuff you see in the bottom is the food. They munched on that food for about a week. Just like in Hungry Caterpillar, they ate and ate and ate. By the end of the week, they were big fat caterpillars. One by one they migrated to the top and entered the chrysalis or pupal stage. It was incredible to watch the metamorphosis occur right in front of our eyes.

We left them alone for several days. Then we moved them to the butterfly house so they would have plenty of room to fly around once they turned into butterflies. One by one they emerged. We cut up oranges and placed a couple of flowers at the bottom along with some tissue soaked in sugar water for them to eat. The kids really enjoyed witnessing the whole process. My daughter could not wait to let them go free. I think this was because she really want to hold them and touch them.

DSC_0223

You can just barely see the butterfly at the top.

letting go

Be free little butterfly. Be free.

DSC_0226

Those little guys did not want to come out.

butterfly fingers

She finally gets to hold one. Thanks Daddy!

butterfly finger

What a beautiful butterfly.
close up butterfly

The topic for Theme Thursday is childhood. Learning, discovering, and enjoying all of the little things we take for granted is what childhood is all about.

Fly on over to Stacey's for more great photos.

11 comments:

La Mama Naturale' said...

Hi Jen,

My little guy pulled your name from the pot...YOU WON the Hemp Shopper giveaway at Recycle Your Day!

Anonymous said...

I LOVE the second to last pic with your daughter and the butterfly on her finger. Nicely done. And just a reminder to me that I need to send in my form for our butterflies. Remind me to get on that. We've done it before with tadpoles and it was such a great learning experience.

Brittany said...

SO fun!!! Yet, they are learning and don't even know it!!

Stacy said...

The second to the last shot is my favorite, too. Great shots! What a great and fun learning opportunity for your kids, too. I bet there were just fascinated by it. Great idea!

Anonymous said...

WOW - awesome, we did that some years ago, but never thought about holding the butterflies! :) That's just great and what an awesome birthday memory!

Anonymous said...

We did the butterflies last month and on "freedom day" ours were mating! Talk about not wanting to fly free! LOL

Those are great shots!!!

Jaimee said...

How fun! I LOVE that second to the last picture with your daughter and the butterfly...just perfect!!

Christina said...

LOVE the one of the butterfly on her finger! This looks like so much fun and I totally want to do it with my girly!

Joanna said...

Wow, that looks so cool. You caught some good images too. I am gonna have to order me up one of them!

Unknown said...

My oldest daughter did this at their school and she could not stop talking about it! It is a great experience for kids - especially ones that love the Hungry Caterpillar book!

I love the butterfly being set free and the butterfly on the finger photos!!

Anonymous said...

That is absolutely amazing! Even though I'm scared of caterpillars, what an awesome way to see the metamorphosis. Brilliant and fantastic photos to document changing life.

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