The Release

As I mentioned in a previous post, Aidan received a Butterfly Garden for his birthday, from Paul's mom. It was a very cool gift. I never realized how quickly butterflies grew.

We sent away for our butterfly larvae. When they arrived, they guaranteed that 3 out of the 5 would make it to the butterly stage. We noticed a difference in the size of the caterpillars overnight. They grow very rapidly. After about a week in the caterpillar stage, they turn to chrysalids. After about a week in this phase, beautiful butterflies appeared. We are proud to say that we were able to transform all 5 of our larvae into butterflies.

Of course, the difficult part for Aidan was the release. He cried and cried. We were finally able to convince him that they would die if we didn't release them. When he was ready, he unzipped the lid of the observation habitat and the butterflies (affectionately named: Annie, Leo, June, Quincy and Rocket....after Disney's, Little Einsteins) flew free.

We learned alot about butterflies, but Aidan's favorites were:

• They drink kool-aid (sugar water) just like him.
• They taste with their feet.
• They have 10,000 eyes each.
• They breathe through their tummy.