Our Butterflies

When I was younger, we would drive into the country and search the ditches for caterpillars.  We'd poke holes in the lid of a mason jar and watch our caterpillars morph into beautiful monarch butterflies.  I remember vividly...the caterpillars were black and gold (Iowa Hawkeye colors), while the Monarchs were black and orange (my high school's colors) - it was perfect, I thought!  I don't know that we did this every summer, but I definitely remember doing it on more than one occasion and there was something very magical about it.

Well, now it's 2016 and you no longer need to search the ditches for caterpillars.  You can order them straight from the Internet and have them delivered directly to your front door!  I mentioned back in April that I ordered a butterfly garden.  I had visions of my kids reliving the same childhood experiences I remember, although no homemade mason jar is needed. :)  

Our caterpillars arrived in mid-June and just over a week ago, we headed to the lake across the street to release six butterflies into the wild.  The entire process took about two weeks from start to finish.  Of course, the first butterfly emerged while the boys were napping, but the rest of them followed suit over the next 24 hours.  I wish I would have taken pictures of the entire process, but the beginning stages were pretty boring and there wasn't much to photograph.  I hope to do this again next summer and think it would make for a fun summertime tradition.



 














7 comments:

  1. Looks so fun. We have one of those sets and we never sent away for the caterpillars. Ooops. Have I already asked you if your dog is a mini schnauzer? I grew up with that kind of dog...can I come and pet yours??

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  2. This is so sweet, my girls would love it!

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  3. Glad you didn't have any butterfly squeezing incidents like we did with Nash during the release!!! ;)

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  4. I love that you have memories of this from your childhood and now you are getting to do it with your own children! I think Mason would enjoy this. Beautiful photos, friend!

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  5. The preschool I worked at does this every year! The only yuck part is the weird bloody discharge from the chrysalises, right?!

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  6. This is so cool! I have a deeply rooted love for butterflies - we released over 100 of them on our wedding day! I need to do this with Marcus!

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  7. Awww, I love this. The boys really look like they enjoyed it as well. I think that it would be a wonderful tradition for yall. :)

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