The Cycle of Life

We have had SUCH FUN watching the life cycle of the Painted Lady Butterfly...
They started out as pretty tiny little Caterpillar guys....

And right on schedule...they hatched from their cocoons into cute little butterflies...

The little instruction booklet that came along with our Live Butterfly Kit was right on the mark as far as what we were watching for...# of days between cycles, etc -

And sure enough - shortly after the chysalides turned black...our butterflies emerged...


And shortly after THAT...we saw a lot of THIS.

Yikes!

Our instruction manual did not tell us anything out the mating habits of our new friends - but there was sure a lot of um, friendliness going on...I hope if they WERE indeed doing what we think they were doing - that they lay their eggs somewhere in our garden and we can enjoy more butterflies!

We knew we couldn't keep them for too long - so we took them to daycare & shared with our friends there - (and why I didn't think to bring the kit to daycare daily so the kids there could take in the life cycle with us is beyond me...next time right??)

And then after a week - we decided to release them...

Except they were a little bit reluctant to leave us!

Big Sister WAS interested - but we had company - and she's more about her older cousin than anything else...

So the little guy and I did the bulk of the release...

I just love his gentle side... someone please tell me he'll always be this sweet...