Butterflies

You should know by now if you have been reading this blog that we had pet caterpillars in the house and I have documenting their progress ever since they arrived in the mail. Here are the previous posts:

Girls' First Pets
Fat Juicy Caterpillars

I checked the tent periodically to see if the butterflies have come out of their cocoons. I was about to give up when I saw the first butterfly out of its cocoon when I returned from grocery shopping this morning. I needed to get the groceries sorted out and then it was time to go get Sonya from preschool so I didn't have a chance to take any photos. All the way to preschool, I was praying for the butterflies to stay in their cocoons till we get home again. Luckily, only one more came out while we were away.

I hurried the girls through lunch so that I can get some photos asap! I got my camera all ready to shoot.

I have 3 more chances to film the butterflies emerging.



I turned my back to get Sonya something from the cupboard and the next thing I know, the third one has popped out! 2 more chances left :(

After the third one, I just sat there with my camera in front of the tent waiting and waiting. Finally, I got it! You will only see the butterfly emerge half way through the video. Hey, I waited quite a while with my camera for them to come out. Now it's your turn. But it is really worth the wait :)

Actually, we were speculating if movement and loud noise triggered "premature birth". The first butterfly emerged between 9 - 11am. The second between 11.40am - 12.30pm. The rest were like just minutes between one another after we brought the whole tent down from where it was hanging on the wall to the kitchen table so that I could take photos.

I snipped off one of the carnations that I got for Mother's Day and sprinkled it with sugar solution as instructed in the butterfly kit. We also had an orange after dinner and gave the butterflies a slice of it.

Apparently, the butterflies will only live for about 2 weeks. There is a chance that there might be male and female butterflies among the five in the tent and they might lay eggs that will hatch into caterpillars. Fingers crossed!

P.S. I am not sure how Sonya and Clara will react when the butterflies die. Sonya did say that she didn't want to see them die and we thought we would free them. Then a few days ago, she said something like she would be brave.