Very Hungry Caterpillars

While we were on vacation we had a neighbor looking in on the house for us...watching our dog and cat, checking the mail. We told her that we were expecting a special package any day - caterpillars! I had bought Clara a kit that allowed us to send away for caterpillars so we could watch the metamorphosis into butterflies. I highly recommend this to anyone with young kids. Clara and Jonathan both loved checking on their progress everyday, and the transition was so fast, both kids stayed interested. Our neighbor was thankful the caterpillars didn't come while we were gone, but they did show up the very next day after we returned home.

They came in this little container with food already in there for them. There was filter paper stretched across the top and a lid with holes placed on top of that.

Right away, the caterpillars started building a network of net along the bottom of the cup. They grew considerably over the next few days. Clara insisted on reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle the first couple nights as her bedtime story!

About a week later, they found their way to the top of the container and attached themselves to the filter paper.

There, they started to build their chrysalis.

All 6 caterpillars in their chrysalis. Once they had all made it to this stage, we carefully removed the filter paper with them attached and hung it in the netted enclosure provided in the kit. It was strange in that they lost their heads in this stage. (That's the little part that's hanging next to some of the chrysalis...others fell completely off and onto the bottom of the net enclosure).

About 5 days later we had our first butterfly. These were 'Painted Lady' butterflies. We fed them sugar water until all the butterflies had emerged over the next 2-3 days.

Then we let them set them free on our Lantana outside.

A view of the inside of their wings. Clara named them all after Disney princes and princesses. We had Ariel, Jasmine, Belle, Beast, Prince Charming, and Prince Eric. She wasn't sad about letting them go when the time came, only that she didn't get to hold one first (they flew off before she had the chance!)