Look what we grew this summer!!

It's been so long since I've been able to download pictures, that I have been saving this :)

This past July/August my neighbour's Mom gave us three of the coolest gifts EVER! 2 Monarch Caterpillars. And a Monarch Chrysalis!! We got to see the entire metamorphasis, and man, it was AWESOME!!! My kids have such an incredible appreciation for butterflies and nature now...I love it :)

My pictures of the caterpillars are on the other computer, but I will try to get them switched over soon.

I'll explain a little of what happens. First, the butterfly lays an egg. The caterpillar hatches and eats A LOT!! They Only eat Milkweed(which I had to go searching for a few times a week!). Milkweed is poisonous to most insects. Once they have had their fill of the milkweed, they find a branch or whatever to begin the chrysalis process. They form into a J, and then attach to the branch with this crazy strong silk stuff. Once they are in the J, it's about 24 hours, before they shed their skin, like this!! Don't mind the noise, there was a lot of us watching it!! Sorry about the focus too :)

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Cool eh?? The Chrysalis is INSIDE the caterpillar, and the butterfly is INSIDE the Chrysalis!

So, after about 1 hour, it looked like this:

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Another hour after that:

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A couple weeks later we could see some definite changes to the Chrysalis. The outer shell stated to thin out, and we could see the colours of the butterfly!

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Two days after that, you could see the entire butterfly right through the Chrysalis!!

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And a few hours after I took that picture, we got this!! Meet Rainbow Pink(Jenna named her :))

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Isn't she Beautiful!?

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Oh! In case you're confused...those are two different butterflies...the one that hatched in the pictures is the one that was already a chrysalis when we got it. The one from the video hatched and flew away when we weren't looking :( I have a tonne more pictures. Some reallly good ones of the third butterfly, I'll download them and post them soon :)

If this is at all interesting to you, I Highly recommend the book 'The Monacrch Butterfly of Aster Way' By Elizabeth Ring It's written perfectly!

So, now our butterflies are all on their way to Mexico, to winter over, and then make their way back...well...Their great great great grandchildren will make it back next summer...it's a long trip :) And the life cycle is only a few months. :) Go ahead, ask me anything! LOL

~Lisa~

P.s. If anyone out there homeschools, this would be an AWESOME science program!!