Butterflies

Alex got a butterfly habitat and caterpillars for a birthday gift.  It was the coolest present!  The caterpillars came in a little covered cup with food in the bottom.  They ate the food and grew quickly.
Here's what they looked like when we got them.

Here's the progression of how they grew in the cup.

You can see in this next photo that one of the caterpillars has formed a J shape.  That means that it's ready to form a chrysalis.

Here they have formed their chrysalises. 

After hanging there for a couple days we moved the paper they were attached to to the butterfly habitat. They stayed inside for about 8-9 days before they started emerging.  

Once they were all emerged, we fed them slices of oranges and some homemade nectar dripped on flowers.  

Finally it was time to let them go.  We took them to the backyard and let them fly.  It was such a neat thing to watch.  

If you want to watch caterpillars grow into butterflies, you can order a kit at Insect Lore.  You can also buy it on Amazon.