Letting 'em Go!

For the past couple of weeks, we have been feeding, observing, and finally releasing our butterflies. When our butterfly larvae arrived, the kids were so excited. This was a first time for our family to raise butterflies. I was really nervous that I might screw up somehow and we wouldn't end up with butterflies but in the end we had butterflies. Once the caterpillars turned into chrysalises, I had to carefully move them inside the butterfly tent. I ended up dropping the paper disk that had the chrysalises on them. I carefully picked up the paper disc and all them were still attached. Wow, I thought I really messed up but I didn't. It wasn't even a week later and we had butterflies. The kids were so excited. The butterflies made me really nervous. I felt uncomfortable about them being in the tent. I felt on some levels it was wrong to keep them in the tent. Yesterday, I had the neighbor kids over to play. I decided it would be a good time to say good bye to the butterflies and set them free. I took the tent outside and gave each child an opportunity to release a butterfly back to nature. The kids struggled to get a butterfly but it was amazing each child ended up with a butterfly on their fingers. Landon's butterfly stayed on his finger for a few minutes. Finally, we a gently blow on the butterfly it took off and flew away up into the sky. The kids were all smiles. We will be doing this again next for sure.