Fly away home

If you have me on FB, you already know this... About a month ago, we sent away for caterpillar larvae for Natalie's butterfly garden (Christmas gift from Oliver). All five grew (3 are guaranteed) and formed chrysalides, and all five hatched! I let Natalie's teacher know what we were doing, and even though they covered butterflies in class months ago, she finds value in letting the kids see the actual process. So, I brought the larvae to class just before they formed their chrysalides, so all the kids could see them. Once they formed their chrysalides, they could not be moved, so I took a picture and sent it in with Natalie - her teacher hung it on their board. Naturally, they all started hatching at the start of Spring Break - which had me anxious - they are only supposed to live 7-10 days after they hatch. Somehow, even the oldest one (which was 12 days old at the time of release) made it until school resumed. So, Natalie's teacher had me come in with the butterflies. Natalie and I worked on a poster about "Painted Lady Butterfly Facts", which we presented to the class. Then Natalie got to show everyone her butterflies. After that, we headed to a little park just beyond the school to release them.

Natalie was very upset when it came time to release them - she didn't want to let go. Her classmates were just wonderful with her. Many of them hugged her, or would rub her arm and assure her that she was doing the right thing by letting them go. And her little friend Kevin grabbed a tissue and was wiping away her tears. Letting them go was really cool. Her teacher found a spot with lots of clover, which they love to eat, and one-by-one, they all flew away. What was really neat was, the butterflies got visibly excited and active once we hit the outdoors - like they knew this was where they truly belonged. The last one to go kind of hung out for a bit - I suspect that was the oldest one. It finally flew off into a patch of clover, ate for a bit, then came back, flew right into Natalie's face, and brushed her nose. I told her that was a butterfly kiss, to thank her for taking such good care of them. That really lifted her spirits! Then, I shit you not, that same butterfly came back to me and Natalie two more times, circled us each time, then finally flew off. Natalie's teacher had everyone sing "Skinamarinkadink" or whatever that song is, to send them off - she leads the class in that song at dismissal each day. It was really lovely - Mrs. A didn't rush everyone back - we got to take our time and watch the butterflies go. She was very thoughtful with Natalie too - she said if we didn't want to release, that was just fine. But, I told her it would be way worse if Natalie discovered one dead in the habitat one day, and Mrs. A agreed - but wanted to make sure we knew it was up to us. She's a wonderful teacher.

We went back in, and the kids all got to do a butterfly craft - even Oliver was included! Both the teacher and aide always go out of there way to include him, so he screws around less when he's in the classroom now. He'll go right to a desk and sit down and wait for an activity. It's really sweet! Then we all had butterfly shaped cookies (dipped in chocolate - yum - found them at Fry's)!