Butterfly Kisses

We discovered last year that we have milkweed in our backyard. At first, I pulled them all out and it was not until Heidi and I were reading about Monarch Butterflies that we learned that milkweed is what they eat and lay their eggs on. So, we raised about three caterpillars last summer in jars and were able to see them turn into butterflies. What an awesome experience! This year, we were prepared! We had our jars ready and looked everyday for butterfly eggs. Last year, we found them as caterpillars, but this year, we hoped to see the process from the very beginning!
On the leaves of the milkweed, we were able to find one tiny caterpillar and three eggs. Heidi named them Kenny, Martha, Mars & FiFi =). Not all of them made it, but we found more eggs as needed. It is absolutely amazing to see how tiny the egg is, to see the caterpillar emerge, to see how much they eat (we had to add many more leaves for food) and to see how fast they grow.
We forgot to take a picture in between the egg and full grown caterpillar - oops! Anyway, after the caterpillar is full grown, he attaches himself to the top of jar and hangs there for awhile. We had always missed when the caterpillar makes his chrysalis, but this year Heidi and I got to see one of them do it! Amazing! Here is a video we found online: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LY-Fiyq8jc4&feature=related

Here is Martha in her chrysalis and below is when she emerged as a beautiful butterfly.

Finally, we were ready to let her go. Heidi had her on a stick for awhile, but then Martha crawled right onto Heidi's hand! She said it tickled, but enjoyed the experience. After a few minutes, she flew off and Peter was able to get one final picture of her in our lilac bush.

"Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it; let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy; they will sing before the Lord, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his truth." Psalm 96:11-13