Our Butterfly Garden Experience

It's true... we have been swayed by a few famous infomercials... Not something we are proud of, but still not ashamed ;)



The Butterfly Garden looked so fun and educational, that I just had to get it for Trisadee...

When we first got our package in the mail, Trisadee was SO excited to get it open and see her caterpillars. We pulled out two cups with lids and saw our nine tiny caterpillars. (the TV said we'd get ten, but it's ok) At first they weren't moving, and Tris got pretty concerned about this, but eventually they all started wiggling around and things seemed ok.



After a while there started to be a weird web-like film filling up the cups... the instructions said this was okay, but it still looked kinda gross.



A few days later, they were all upside down preparing to start their cocoons.



When they were all snug and tight, we transferred them carefully to their big mesh container...



The whole process really seemed to go pretty quickly... and soon the first butterfly broke free.... it all seemed really cool... Until the butterfly started to ooze out this weird red stuff... it wasn't blood, and the paper warned us that this might happen, just not to the extent that it did... It Really grossed Charlie out... Especially as each butterfly came out and More and More red goo started to stain the habitat.




Trisadee didn't seem to mind the ooze too much and seemed pretty happy that she'd grown butterflies ;)



As soon as the butterflies had all (but one) broken out and dried their wings... Charlie had had enough and Really wanted to get them gone ;) LOL



So, tonight, after it had cooled down a bit, we had our little backyard party of setting the butterflies free....




Trisadee was hoping to get one to eat some sugar-water off her finger, but it didn't happen... they just started flying free... The pictures don't capture how pretty they were, but they sure do capture Tris ;) She was So worried if they'd be okay without her.. Cute!!



Here you can see old cocoons and the nasty stains... They sure don't show THIS on the commercial LOL





All in all, I was pretty pleased with the experience... if only to see this sweet girl's smile of accomplishment ;)



Taigyn seemed a bit confused about the whole thing, but was happy :)



Just thought I'd add a pic of Daddy with his talking-to-Tobie face... He babies that dog ;)
And for future references... I know this would be the part that Charlie would add 'Well she never did like Tobie'... BUT I do... I'm just not a huge animal lover like he is...
Honestly, a dog just feels like another child I need to take care of... but he's a good dog :)