Painted Ladies

Things around here have been hectic. There's just been a ton going on and I haven't much time to just sit and organize my thoughts. And I haven't nearly had the time I would like to blog. So, I am a bit behind, and in my head there is a whole list of things I want to share with you. But, for now, I will just focus on butterflies.
For Christmas, my mom got the kids a butterfly kit, and over the past few weeks the kids and I have raised caterpillars and watched them turn into Painted Lady butterflies. This is something that I had never done before, and I have to admit, I was just as excited as the kids. Well, more excited than Finn actually (he HAS done this before, at school). Anyways, we loved watching the caterpillars grow at an amazing rate, and then form a chrysalis and hang, suspended by a silken thread, until they suddenly (and I mean suddenly) emerge as a butterfly. We only kept them as butterflies for a day, because we all wanted them to be free. And I must say that watching them fly away was the very best part.

I was astounded at how fragile the chrysalises are once the butterflies emerge: paper thin. I don't know how that meager shell can support such an amazing metamorphosis. Pretty cool stuff.