Butterfly Lifecycle

I saw a recommendation for Insect Lore from a friend on Facebook and thought the kids would really enjoy watching the formation of a butterfly.  Ella loves butterflies so she was super excited when I told her what I ordered.  Everyday for a week she asked when they would be delivering her butterfly garden.  I got an email confirmation one morning and told her it should be here when she got home from school.  That afternoon, I got a phone call from Ella and she was mad!  They delivered the butterfly habitat but no caterpillars.  There was a coupon code for the caterpillars and you had to order them separately.  She’s not the most patient child so waiting another week seemed like an eternity to her.  After the caterpillars finally arrived, she carried them around watching their every move.  I was a little worried at first because they looked dead…but after reading the paperwork that came with them, I learned that they were still in “shock” from their travels.  A couple days later, they finally started to move around.  Poor caterpillars got carried around and shook every chance one of the kids found where I hid them.  It was amazing to watch how quickly they grew.  They more than tripled in size in just a few days!  They entered the chrysalis stage of their lifecycle about a week later.  The instructions said once they were in this stage to leave the container alone and limit movement.  Well…Evan got a hold of them and gave them a couple big shakes and sent a couple of them to the bottom of the container.  This triggered World War III at our house!  Ella cried and fussed thinking they were dead.  I have to admit I wasn’t so sure they were going to make it either.  Once the chrysalis were completely hardened, we transferred them into the habitat.  We watch them for about a week and then one morning Ella found a butterfly in the habitat.  Surprisingly, it was one of the butterflies Evan shook loose from the paper.  A few days later, the kids had 5 butterflies hopping around the habitat.  They fed them and once their wings were ready to fly we set them free.  (Love the motto from the company…Watch them grow then let them go!)  I was a little sad to let them go knowing they only live for a couple weeks :( Ella loved learning about the butterfly lifecycle and having a few new pets for a couple weeks!