Life Cycles - Our Monarch Cats...

Remember these little guys?

Tiny Monarch Cats the size of just the first few letters of the writing of United on a US Quarter?

They are getting bigger...

 Chomping our milkweed down to the stalks...

 It's almost go time!

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Becoming Butterflies ~ Our Monarchs have arrived!

We were soo excited to find that we had baby Monarchs in our garden...

They quickly grew before our eyes...
And turned themselves into one dozen little Chrysalides...



We knew that when the Chrysalides turned from green to 'black' - they would be emerging within hours ~ (it's not really black, it's actually CLEAR, and the black you see is the actual Monarch inside!)

As luck would have it...they emerged while we were gone...

and were pretty anxious to see the world when we got home...

So much so, that a certain little excited four year old let one go...

in. the. house!

The hubs' rescued him though ~

I thought all of the kids would be more excited...

but D, my little adventurer was the only 1 besides me who really cared!

I don't know - I just find them sooo beautiful!

They stuck around for a little bit of fruit...

But not very long...before they were up, up and AWAAAAAY!

We've seen them floating around the yard and our garden...

And we look forward to the next generation of Monarchs which should be sometime this month!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar ~

It was only a week ago that we found many little friends in our garden...

They were soo teeny tiny...

and very very hungry...

Chompin' on the Milkweed ~

Every morning and every night we would give them a fresh stalk of milkweed leaves.

And they grew and they grew and they grew...

Last night they were devouring every leaf in sight as fast as we could put it in their habitat, leaving only the stem of the milkweeds...(and there ARE 11 of them!)

And today, they ate barely anything...

it turns out, in preparation for making their chrysalis!

(See that green chrysalis in the center of the picture underneath the striped monarch Caterpillar that is folding himself in half to make HIS own chrysalis?

Here's a close up...

Yep...the very hungry caterpillars are getting ready for the big transformation!

Now we watch for them to turn black...

And I only know this because of the research we did LAST year when we first stumbled upon this super fun nature experience....

And then we will have a family of 11 Monarchs hanging around our backyard garden...(at least we hope they'll stick around!)

The simple things that bring me peace...

Too bad everything isn't this simple & easy & fun ...

We've got Babies!

Last year in my learning to garden experience...I planted some milkweeds...

We had such fun discovering Monarch caterpillers in our garden last year...That we knew to go looking for them again this year...

See that tiny white spec on the back side of this leaf? Yep, that's a butterfly egg!

And another one!

We've patiently been waiting for the eggs to hatch...
And imagine our delight when we came home today to find teeny tiny bebeh caterpillers!!

(You may need to click on the photo to even be able to see the little guy on the leaf!)

Seriously - click here to see how big the garden friends we discovered LAST year were!

What fun!!

We brought in not one, or two, or three...but ELEVEN baby caterpillers who are now happily, and safely, munching milkweed leaves in our butterfly habitat...

Have you found any caterpillers in your own neck of the woods? Do you see (m)any butterflies flying around?

We love watching the miracles that transpire right before our very eyes!

Circles of Life...

So remember THESE little guys...

I told you all about about them HERE...
Well, my fancy google research told me that when the chysalides turned from green, to black...like below...
That you would have Monarch Butterflies by noon...

It was a Monday morning and we awoke to this...(click on the picture to enlarge it...you can see right inside and see the Monarch wings!! WOW!

Figures that it was on MONDAY and not on Sunday...
but that's ok...The kids wanted to take them to daycare...

And we did...and while they missed the first emergence of one of them, they heard the rustling and were able to witness the second Monarch coming out of his cocoon!


See the empty cocoons here? (Click to make the pic larger...) Amazing that all that color you see, ie: black, is really the butterfly and the cocoons are clear!

Because Monarchs need Milkweed, we brought them back home again for yet another butterfly release in our backyard garden ~

Seriously, so pretty...and such a nice addition to our yard.

I felt a little guilty about bringing them inside but then I read a tidbit on the internet that told me that if left in the wild, fewer than 10% of monarch caterpillars will survive to become butterflies. If you bring monarch caterpillars into your house, more than 90% will become beautiful monarch butterflies ...so now I know...

Next year, bring them all inside the butterfly habitat to raise and release!

And the day of the release...who should we discover...but more new friends!

While fun to look at and watch for a bit, I learned that these guys actually hog all the milkweed and can do some real damage in your garden...and in the end...and are not actually butterflies but moths...so we put him back (in a different location of the yard) knowing that he would not form a chrysalis in our care...

Wasn't this fun?

Our love of caterpillars and butterflies has really escalated since our Insect Lore Butterfly Kit - I cannot speak highly enough of this product.

Looking for a gift for the kid that has everything? Seriously...Get them one of these!