A Busy Butterfly Morning

Whew!  We had a flurry of activity here this morning.

We awoke to butterfly #13 already out of his chrysalis.

Shortly after that, butterflies #14 and 15 emerged.

#15 has a small hole in his wing.  It didn't seem to deter him from flying away though.

Right around lunchtime #16 emerged.

And finally #17 graced us with her presence.

I was a bit disappointed that they all came at different times.  I was hoping to have all 5 together.  But I did get 3 of them together on my iris.  These are #14, 15, and 16 - in case you wondered.  :)

And the last 2 together also.

Shortly after #17 emerged and I put him on the flower, we left to go see Toy Story 3.  (LOVED IT by the way.)  They had all flown away by the time we got back.

But by the looks of things, we will have at least one more butterfly tomorrow.

I am glad these 5 came on a Saturday so the kids could see them.  It's not quite the same just showing them the pictures of the ones that emerged while they were in school.

As of right now we have 11 in chrysalis and 6 caterpillars munching away.  Plus we found a little hatchling this morning purely be accident (I was collecting leaves for our hungry caterpillars who ate all theirs overnight, and he happened to be on one).  Not sure if he'll survive though.  Here's hoping!

The kids are so excited because we have a bunch of milkweed seed pods that we are going to plant.  Plus I am going to invest in some of the butterfly bushes that they love so much (and by "they" I mean the butterflies.  Although I'm sure the kids will love them too.).  And I'm also going to get some more butterfly-friendly flowers.  So hopefully next summer, we'll get to do this all over again.

I also found out that you can register as a Monarch habitat, so we're looking into that.

I think I'm having as much fun raising Monarch's as the kids are.  Maybe more!

:)

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