Temporary Pets

About a month ago, I found a ton of monarch caterpillars munching on plants in my garden (butterfly weed plants ironically enough).  The kids went bananas and we collected about 17 of them.  Most when to daycare because Kathy has a neat container specifically for caterpillars/butterflies.  We kept a few of them in Jack's bug cage.  They had a blast watching them eat milkweed (which we had to pick from ditches), make their cocoons and eventually emerge as butterflies.  One day at Kathy's 12 of them came out and all the kiddos let them go.  So much nature fun.  I caught these cute pictues when the ones that we kept came out of their cocoons.

Munching on my Butterfly Weed (orange flowers)

 Release Day 1

 Release Day 2

I think we'll call Hailey the "butterfly whisperer" from here on out.