Kya's Butterfly Garden

For Christmas, Uncle Kevin and his family gave Kya a Butterfly Garden. I decided to wait until school was out before ordering the caterpillars.  This way it would give the kids something to do and Kya an opportunity to continue working on her writing skills, as she kept a daily journal of what she observed.

The caterpillars have arrived!  Kya was super excited to get a box in the mail with her name on the label and then inside was this container that housed five tiny caterpillars and gooey food on the bottom.

The caterpillars grew FAST and made a mess of their house.

About 6 days later, we woke up to find the caterpillars hanging upside down from the top of the container and forming their Chrysalis (cocoon).

About a week later we had Butterflies!

We fed them orange slices and sugar water.  Yum Yum!

Finally the day came that we had to let them go.  It was a bit bittersweet for the kids, as they wanted to keep them forever.

Almost as soon as we unzipped the top, they flew out one at a time.

Some flew away, while others hung out on our tomato plants.

The kids inspecting one of the butterflies in its natural habitat.

This butterfly knew who took good care of it.  Kya was thrilled to have him/her land on her finger and hang out for a short time.

This was a fun experiment for the kids and one I am sure we will repeat sometime in the future.