Zen & the Art of Butterfly Rearing

This weekend, Dad had the idea for us to walk on the college campus that is near us. We never go there so it was a nice change. :) We found this very cool Zen garden to play in too! On our way out the back door, we noticed a sign that said keep pets outside...OOPS, Mom and Dad forgot to stay out! BOL! Really though, we didn't see it on the way in but don't worry...I was a very good girl and didn't dig or do anything naughty. Mom and I just played a little tag and some other games.

There she goes!

I can always catch her though but she never gives up trying to outrun me....silly humans! :)

Then we did a little synchronized jumping! I think we should go on the road with our act! BOL!

And of course, some posing! This is MY personal favorite. ;)

But Mom liked this one better...go figure!

And don't forget, Dad was with us too!

And now I will finish off with the end of the butterfly story! If you recall from a couple of weeks ago my Mom still had little caterpillars in her classroom. Click HERE to see that post. Well, week 3 after their arrival was filled with j-shapes and chrysalises!

I LOVE the gold flecks in the Painted Lady chrysalis....so pretty! If you look closely I bet you can see some things that will be butterfly parts when they are ready to emerge. Also, check out those strong silk buttons they spin to hold themselves up! Amazing!

After about 7 days inside the warm, cozy chrysalis the butterflies decided to emerge and this is what they looked like! GORGEOUS, aren't they! Look carefully at the one on the orange and you can see that it is using it's proboscis to sip sweet orange nectar.

Mom took her class out to release the little butterflies and it was quite fun according to her. She said some of them didn't want to leave though and it was tricky work to carefully get them out of the net.

Mom let them crawl on her finger and then she would slowly let them crawl onto her student's fingers and then they would fly off! She says the kiddos were grinning from ear to ear and it was fun to see! They said, "Bye-bye butterfly" as each one flew off! I hope they are happy in their new outdoor home now. :)