This is one of the coolest things we've ever done- it's a butterfly garden kit from Santa. In the spring you order caterpillar cups. For about a week they eat and grow, then they crawl to the top and form a chrysalis.
That's when you pin them to their habitat and wait a week for the butterflies to emerge.
It's a good idea to hang the habitat out of reach because some kids try to traumatize the chrysalides.
Then one day you come home and there is a BUTTERFLY in your house! We named our first friend "Twinkle".
He liked oranges and sugar water. The red stuff on the napkin is called meconium, it's the messy part of hatching. We think it must be what gives the wings a pretty color.
One by one, they started popping out of their cocoons, usually in the morning before school. We had a total of 10 beautiful babies.
The fun part was releasing them at the end of the day. It's crazy how far and high they can fly. We planted lots of flowers for them, so they can live in our back yard.
It was really fun to watch them fly to their favorite trees.
We see one of our babies outside every day. We can't wait to do this again!
