We have had some new pets in the Knott household in the last month or two. I got the idea for this from a friend's blog (thanks Jana!). For Christmas, my parents gave Addison a Butterfly growing kit. In the kit, you have coupons that you send in to the company when you are ready to start the process. We received about 10 caterpillars in jars in the mail with instructions on what to do and what to expect. Over the first week, the caterpillars started to turn into cocoons one by one and attach themselves to the lids at the top of the jar.
We had to leave them alone until we started seeing signs of them coming out of their cocoons.
And when we did, they had to be transferred to their new home which was a mesh container. The piece of material that was on the lid where they attached themselves had to be removed from the jar and pinned in their new home.
Then we waited for them to all emerge from their cocoons one by one.
We had to "feed and water" them like any pet. The instructions suggested watermelon or fresh flowers with sugar water on them... and they seemed to like it. Addison took this job very seriously and even reminded us on some days! Before long, they had all grown into beautiful butterflies (all but one or two - 8/10 is not bad!).
We enjoyed them for several days inside. They sat on the counter and many times we would hear a strange noise that would make us look around the house a bit scared. Come to find out, it was usually the butterflies fluttering around inside the net.
We told Addison that we had to let them go and she came very close to crying. We explained to her that we would probably see them again flying around in our yard and to remember that she helped them to grow from caterpillars into beautiful butterflies!This was actually a fun family project and we all enjoyed the process! Kevin mentioned to Addison that if she showed us how she could take good care of these butterflies, that maybe someday she could have a pet fish. Oh good, just what I have always wanted! :)
Isn't is awesome? I actually enjoyed it as much as Avery did. We only had like 5 caterpillars though and I think our net was smaller. Either way it's an awesome idea.
ReplyDeleteThis totally reminded me...the triplets got the kit LAST year for their birthday and I never ordered butterflies! I put it in the top of the closet and haven't thought about it until now! Looks like lots of fun. I'm off to find our butterfly certificate :)
ReplyDeleteSo cool! I remember doing that as a kid and I thought it was so cool! By the way, don't do the fish if you can avoid it. :) We kept the fish alive for a year and a half and when Cole killed it, he cried for 2 days on and off. :( Cole just tried to feed it a little too much (as in the entire container!).
ReplyDeleteWe do those every year too. The kids love them. I would not get a fish though, we have tried and failed many times. WE have Water frogs from Brookstone and they are sooooo easy to take care of. You don't change the water, and only feed them every few days. It doesn't get much easier and we've had four frogs for awhile now. Check them out, they'd love them...and you won't be totally miserable. :) :)
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