Square, the Butterfly

"The Butterfly Guy" came to Charlie and Evie's school and did an amazing presentation on butterflies.  They loved it and when we were offered the opportunity to purchase a chrysalis from him, I jumped on it.  And I am so glad I did--we had so much fun watching this process and there was lots and lots of talk about what was going on in that little chrysalis (verdict: the same thing that is going on in Mommy's tummy, according to Charlie :).  

Here is our chrysalis on Day 1, nice and green.

Charlie, examining the chrysalis for any changes on Day 2.

Johnny Football, examining the chrysalis on Day 5, when it turned black.  That's when we knew our butterfly was getting ready to come out.

You can't tell in the photo, but once it turned black, you could see tiny monarch butterfly wings through the chrysalis.  Amazing!

Two very excited chrysalis watchers.

Unfortunately for us, the chrysalis turned black on a school day.  I briefly considered keeping them home, but considering that we only have two days of school per week, school won out.  I hoped the butterfly would hold out until we got home, but no dice.  

Guess who was waiting for us when we walked in?  Meet Square, our butterfly.

We had no idea how long Square had been out, but I'm guessing it had been a while, since his wings were all filled out and he was crawling all around.

The empty chrysalis.

Square made his way down to the ground and his two little helpers rushed over to see him.  I had to act fast to keep those 4 busy hands away.

Using a butterfly net, we took Square outside to release him.

We waited...

...and waited...

...and waited.  But poor Square just crawled around exploring.  The kids were thrilled because they got lots of time to watch him, but I was a little worried that Square's wings weren't working so well.

We were thrilled with our loyal little homebody butterfly, but hope that he found a way to fly off at some point.  Charlie is still hoping that Square will bring his butterfly family back to visit us because he (obviously) cannot imagine that Square is not missing us terribly!