Butterfly Journal

Day 1- Exactly one week after the Caterpillars turned into their cocoons they started to hatch into beautiful Butterfly's. This morning we were pleasantly surprised that two were born last night. We were so very excited. Their Cocoons were almost see through. They weren't moving much, but when they did they were pumping their wings and trying to fly. They are gorgeous and have lovely patterns on their wings.

Day 2- Two more hatched last night, the last one was very dark so we knew it was close. We put the enclosure on the table while we ate breakfast. All of a sudden we witnessed the most amazing sight. The last one was born right in front of our eyes. It climbed out of the bottom, it was all scrunched up and started to pump its wings until they were straight and beautiful. The girls were so excited and fascinated with the whole process. Masie and Taylor didn't want to go to school because they wanted to watch them all day long. These Butterfly's are called "Painted Ladies".Day 3- We are really enjoying our Butterfly's. We know the time is near to release them and as they only have a life span of 4-5 weeks its not fair to keep them much longer for our own pleasure. We have held them once or twice after googling "Will it hurt the Butterfly if its handled" as Ive heard it could affect their ability to fly. We got the go ahead as long as we were careful and didn't handle them excessively. We love watching them eat from the flowers and fresh orange slices. Each child took so much pride in holding their Butterfly, they were so very gentle and so happy. They all took wonderful care of their Butterfly's, they squirted sugar water on the flowers several times a day.

I tried to get all five on the flowers at the same time but they had other ideas. Here are Mango and Strawberry.

Day 4- When we woke this morning and all immediately went to check on our Butterfly's we saw they were extremely active now. They were so ready to be released, we was going to wait until tomorrow (Earth Day) but we knew it was time. It was a good day as I had no daycare kids and it was just us, no rushing or stressing it was wonderful. There were sad tears that quickly turned to Happy tears, stay tuned for tomorrow when I post the 'Release of the Butterfly's'.