What fun! Terry sent Davey a Butterfly House for his birthday, complete with larva, although by the time they got here they were full-grown caterpillars, five of them, alive and wriggling. Already this morning, four have attached themselves to the roof of the jar, 2 of which are wriggling around on the roof trying to stake out their territory, I think, and the other 2 already look firmly established hanging head down with the beginnings of the silky stuff around them!! One looks dead on the groud :-(, but overall I was surprised how well they survived the trip...I'm sure it wasn't a pleasant one. Davey has also caught several little butterflies in his net, and has a lincoln log fort built for them to live in. It is an awesome net, and so neat to see the caterpillars changing. They got here just in time!

Here's the blow by blow details...it is really fascinating to watch. They look like they are slightly jiggling. I thought maybe our drier in the other room was making the bookcase wobble that they are on, but then I read the instructions and they said this is how the chyrsalides ward off predators. Other than that they look totally still, yet the chyrsalides keep growing. How do they do that? I guess if someone were watching my tummy grow, they might say the same thing.

Opened the box at 1:pm on Tuesday. 3 caterpillars were on the roof, 2 on the ground, all looked healthy. We set the box high up on a book shelf, safely out of the reach of Georgie we hope.

Wednesday -
8am: 2 hanging head down, two wriggling on roof, 1 looks dead on the ground.
noon: Now 3 are hanging head down...one is still wriggling around on the roof.
6pm: The 4th one hung itself. There are silky webs all over the roof of the jar, but to me the caterpillars don't look silky yet.
Thursday
9am: Two of the caterpillars seem to have their chrysalids 2/3 built, one looks about 1/2, one looks like he hasn't started (he was the last one to be still wriggling around on the roof). The surprising thing is the one on the ground looks like he has built 1/2 of a chrysalid! He wasn't dead at all!

Thursday 7pm: All but the tail ends of all of them are covered. I think I'll wait a few days to move them and see if that covers up. According to directions, we are supposed to move them into their butterfly habitat once the chyrsalides are fully formed. David and I are losing sleep over this, and discussing their health and formation more than the health of formation of the character of our kids! Welll, almost. But how do we know exactly when to move them? Directions say take the cardboard circle out of the lid that they are attached to and pin it to the side of the habitat. Won't they be hanging sideways then? Won't they die with the movement? It is a lot of responsibility! I actually emailed the place, and their response was kind of vague, just making me more uneasy. Sure hope we can sleep tonight.

Sunday night: We noticed a butterfly!
Monday: FIVE butterflies hatched!! They don't look super colorful until they open their wings, then you can see the red, black and white markings of the Painted Lady. Here are their shells.








Wednesday: It looked safe to release them, so we did. An hour later, one of the kids saw one around still. OF COURSE, that afternoon we had a really hard strong rainstorm. I really doubt they survived, as the temperature was right on the edge of what they can survive in, according to the website. But it was a lot of fun. Thanks, Aunt Terry!