Butterflies and Ladybugs

This year I decided to reorder some butterflies and order ladybugs for the first time. Two years ago for Easter we did butterflies and triops, and the boys loved them. I was going to do it last year, but with two kids, a baby, a c-section and not a lot of time, it didn't happen. So after the boys asked a few hundred times if we could do it this year, I caved and order them.

The butterflies come as caterpillars in an enclosed container with food. So we watched them get bigger and bigger and bigger. Then they climb to the top and form their chrysalis (cocoon). Once all of the caterpillars are in their cocoons you remove the paper and pin it to the big butterfly enclosure and wait. Once the butterflies emerge you feed them flowers, sugar water and oranges. We released them today so that they could live longer (they have a very short life span in captivity). With my back/leg hurting and then the surgery I totally spaced getting pictures of the caterpillars and butterflies before today. I found a few good pictures online of what we had (see above)

and here are the pictures of us releasing them today.

We also ordered a ladybug enclosure and ladybug larva. We got this little dome and a tube of ladybug larva/food. All I had to do it pour the larva and food into the enclosure and add a few drops of water to the sponge pad. I didn't know that ladybugs laid eggs, hatched larva, turned into pupa (cocooned) and then emerged into ladybugs. It was very cool to watch. Once again I didn't take pictures during the process, but I found some online to show you and some pictures of us releasing them.