Finley the Entomologist

After a successful caterpillar to butterfly metamorphosis in my kindergarten class this spring, I figured Finley would enjoy the same experience at home.  I ordered some caterpillars online and the fun began!

Our little caterpillars arrived and started eating and getting bigger and bigger each day.

 One morning, after checking in on the little guys, Finley says to me, "I hope my caterpillars never turn into butterflies.  I like them they way they are." Gulp.  But as each one slowly crawled to the top of the canister and hung in a J-shape before turning into a chrysalis, he seemed excited that butterflies would soon emerge.  Phew.

 As you can see from the photo above, there was one straggler who ate less, grew slower, and I wasn't sure it would ever make it to the butterfly phase...but Dan kept pulling for the lovable runt.  The first three went into their chrysalises and we transferred them into the butterfly net-habitat and not long after the fourth one went in, too.

Then, we waited.  And waited.  Seven to ten days for chrysalis to butterfly is what the instructions said, and in the end, I think ours fell right into that window because on Monday morning we awoke to our first butterfly!  Finley was thrilled and totally amazed.

 And then another by that afternoon.

 The third hatched on Tuesday and by Friday, we were ready to release the three butterflies and give Dan's runt as long as it needed in the habitat.  The butterflies were getting stir crazy and so we planned to let them go when our family visitors from NY were here on Saturday.  So, we headed outside after nap time on Saturday and Finley grabbed his bug net to catch his butterfly friends. We had tried to tell him that they will fly off quickly, but he wanted to try...love that commitment.

 I unzipped the habitat and off they flew!!

 For better or worse, the little guys took right off up towards the free air and Finley wasn't able to catch them in his net.  Later that day, Dan's runt emerged from its chrysalis and we put the beautiful butterfly out on some flowers in the front yard.  Dan's paternal instincts extend to insects, too, it seems :)