We enjoyed our live ants project so much, that we decided to do the butterflies (from the same company) as well!

This time our caterpillars arrived on the first try without incident.  We got five live caterpillars on our doorstep one typically warm January afternoon!

They were very tiny.  We were surprised how fast they grew.  Within a week, four of them had moved to the top and formed their chrysalis…

The fifth one had stopped growing and disappeared somewhere in the container?!

We transferred them from their yucky webby little plastic food container into the butterfly net.

And pinned them to the side…per the instructions.

Then we left them in there for about 7 more days until they started to emerge from their chrysalis.

It took about four days for all four butterflies to emerge, but eventually they all did.

We gave them orange slices and flowers to eat and drink from.

A few days later, it was a beautiful afternoon and we took them outside to release them!

This was so much fun!

After the boys opened the lid, the butterflies migrated towards the top one at a time.

And took turns flying away.

The boys followed them until they couldn’t see them anymore, then came back to watch the next one.

The fourth and final butterfly paused for a minute on the edge and Conner took the opportunity to try and hold him/her.

Then he passed him/her off to Logan…

for just a brief second…

before the butterfly took flight.

Aside from the gross-factor of the butterflies getting red stuff all over the net when they emerged from their chrysalis, this was totally fun and we hope to do it again in the future!  Our next project in the animal line-up is tadpoles!