The larvae arrived in a cup full of food for them to grow and become pupa. In 24 hours, the caterpillars were twice their size! We watched them move around for a few days and the cup started to get cloudy looking because the caterpillars were strewing silk everywhere. Then we noticed they were hanging out at the top of the cup. A day or two later, and the caterpillars became pupa hanging upside down from the top of the cup. We had four pupa!
Now it was time to carefully move them to their habitat or "garden" so they could freely move around when they become butterflies. We opened the cup, pulled the silk off the paper where the pupa were attached and pinned it to the inside of the new habitat. And then we waited.
About a week later, I went to check on them and three of the four had become butterflies. Paul had checked on them a few hours before and they had not yet come out of their chrysalis. I called to Logan and he came running in. The first thing he said when he saw them was, "wow, that's amazing!" We brought the habitat out to the dining room and fed them some sugar water and orange slices. We watched them for hours. There wasn't much movement from them just yet and Logan REALLY wanted them to move around. I kinda forgot how frustrating it can be for a 3-year-old to wait!
While we were watching the three butterflies pump their wings and walk around, the fourth butterfly emerged. The wings were tiny and within a few minutes, the butterfly looked just like the others. They all seemed to rest for a while and eventually they found their food. It was fascinating to watch them eat with their "straw".
A couple of days later and I was starting to feel badly that these beautiful creatures were being contained in the habitat. I asked Logan if he was ready to let them go and we talked about it at great length. He said he wanted to feed them. So we put some fresh orange slices in. I asked him if he was ready to let them go later that day. Nope. He wanted to make sure he fed them. We talked about how the butterflies would find things to eat out in the world, be able to fly more freely and enjoy the flowers. We talked about the life cycle of a Painted Lady Butterfly, which is about 4 weeks from larvae to adult butterfly. Logan said he didn't want them to die. Oh boy. I told him they will die and we talked again about how they will be able to enjoy the outdoors before they die. No deal.
The next day we watched the butterflies for a while and I asked if he was ready to let them go. He said he wanted to feed them with the "green thing". Oh! Silly Mama! The green thing, of course! When we got the habitat for the butterflies it came with an elongated green eye-dropper to feed the butterflies sugar water. So I loaded up the "green thing" with sugar water and Logan squirted some in for the butterflies. Now he was ready to let them go.
He carefully carried the habitat to the door and got in the stroller. He decided he wanted to let them go at the nearby field. So we headed down there, the whole time Logan saying, "I'm holding on them tight!" As soon as we got outside the butterflies went nuts flying all over the habitat. They seemed to know we were going to let them go.
We got to the field and Logan picked a tall tree to release the butterflies. I got the camera ready and took a video. Then we spent about an hour looking for them in the field. We actually found two of them! As we were getting ready for bed later the same day I asked Logan what he thought the butterflies were doing. "Oh they're in California now. They flew the whole way there!"
checking out the larvae the day they arrived
butterfly hanging out at the top of the habitat
logan checking out the butterflies
holding onto the habitat tightly while taking them to the field
one of the butterflies that we found after logan released them
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