Making Butterflies

The making of butterflies started back in May when we went to Lowes on Mothers Day to pick out some flowers for our annual planting extravaganza. We usually do not have a plan nor do we research types of plants & flowers prior to our trip. We were picking quick with four kids in tow & came across something called "butterfly weed." I mentioned I liked the yellow flowers & Robby threw three of them in the cart & we kept on moving. They were planted later that day & within hours there were butterflies coming by to check it out. I thought "Wow, what an easy way to attract butterflies!" Here are the blooms....

Within the week Rob saw what he thought was an infestation of mini-caterpillars. He looked up "butterfly weed" online thinking he needed to find a safe way to kill off these insects without killing our new plant. Come to find out, our butterfly weed would play a key role in the making of monarch butterflies. Guess we should have done a bit of research ; ) 

Just like in The Very Hungry Caterpillar, they were very VERY hungry. They got fatter & fatter as they made their way through the plants.....

There are three in the picture below. At times I could count 16 caterpillars devouring their delicious leaves!

In no time at all, the most beautiful chrysalis seemingly appeared outside our front porch one morning.  The color was just amazing, the gold band around the top & what looked like little specks of water were such tiny & incredible details to something so small.  It was right at eye level for Eloise which was perfect and not to mention dangerous ; ) 

We looked at it every day, multiple times a day in hopes we would catch the butterfly emerging. My guess was that it would take "more than two weeks" since that it what my fiction book The Very Hungry Caterpillar said.  Haha! I should have known that was not true since I already knew that these caterpillars were not interested in salami, pickles or watermelon. It was more like 9-11 days for these little butterflies. End of that story, the cocoon survived the interested toddler yet we missed it's nocturnal exit which was a bummer. Little did we know, we would end up seeing multiple butterflies hatch over the coming weeks. So, while we waited on our lone cocoon, we watched the others caterpillars grow...

We looked at these caterpillars for hours over these few weeks! Everytime Bella needed to go out we would check on them. The girls loved it!  Grammy was in town during part of the process & took Anson outside to sneak a peak. He looks genuinely interested doesn't he?

Talk about VERY hungry caterpillars....they ate three entire plants worth of leaves! They were a good two feet tall, the plants not the caterpillars ; ) 

They began to make their way to a location of their choosing to begin making cocoons.  We were headed out the front door one afternoon & almost stepped on this little guy!

I would like to say this picture was taken in the early morning since the girls are in PJs but it was definitely one of those days where we changed into different PJs before bed that night.  I guess Eloise was only in half of her PJs....seriously, that girl is missing pants for the majority of every day! It is just one of things I have let go of in my new stage of life.  It never fails that she needs to go potty immediately after I sit down to feed babies so she can get them off on her own but struggles to put them on correctly. They get left on the floor & we continue on with the day.  When it comes down to it...pants are just not a priority right now ; ) Here they are watching one make his way up the wall..

This was my favorite part of the process. Once they found the perfect spot, they would hang upside down & begin to make their cocoon....

Within a few hours, it would be complete.....

Apparently the prime spot was right outside Robby's office window although three really ambitious caterpillars made their way across our driveway & onto the house next door!  I did catch my neighbor outside with her power washer one afternoon about to spray them down haha! I convinced her not to. So, in the photo below there are five but at one point there were about 12 attached within a few feet of that window!

Before too long, there were butterflies hatching every day!  There was one cocoon way up high right outside the front door. That butterfly made his way down the wall as we watched in amazement...

It got even more exciting when he crawled right over & onto my foot! The girls thought I was really cool ; )

Then up my leg & onto my skirt...

His wings were still really wet & curled over.  We sat for a good thirty minutes while he crawled all over me & tried to stretch out his wings.

We sat him down under a plant while he dried out the rest of the way & about an hour later, we saw him in flight for the first time!

Here is another one still holding on....

and once we bid him farewell, all that was left was the reminder of the incredible process we had front row seats to for weeks on end.....

Just a few things I want to remember about the experience of watching the life cycle of a Monarch Butterfly:

1. It was a blessing from God in that it occurred from mid May to mid June when we had 2-3 month old babies & did not leave the house much.  This was the PERFECT thing to keep our excitement level up for "getting out!" Good thing the girls were only 2 & 3 at the time or this trip out of the house might not have sufficed ; ) 
2. Another blessing, it provided an opportunity for the girls to learn all about something beautifully designed by the same God that created them. What an incredible thing to expose them to & not to mention, right outside our front door. Talk about wildlife, in those weeks they got to hold frogs & worms & see two full grown owls outside our back door multiple nights! 
3. We had some good laughs throughout this experience. Robby was interested in the process but found it hilarious that I became obsessed. I would go out side during nap time or in the evening when we put the kids to bed. I would drag a bar stool out into the front flowerbed, push it up against the front window & climb up to be eye level with a caterpillar making its cocoon.  Some of the pictures are not very clear because I would be balancing with one foot on the stool & one on the house while trying not to crash through Robby's window while he was working. He did joke that I was going to get myself fired at lurking around out there at dusk. Ha! I was obsessed... I think.
4. Charlotte could not get it in her head that they were called "cocoons" & referred to them as "raccoons" for the first week. She would be on the phone with my mom telling her that we had beautiful raccoons on our house...hahaha!

One afternoon a couple weeks later I walked out to find the process continuing on.... at least I think that is what was happening...