First Monarch Release!

OK....I've never posted on a blog before ....and I know I really should introduce my tribe and do the whole mother thing..... and believe me.....I AM A PROUD MAMA!!! But....I'm so excited I just have to share our first homeschool "scienc-ey" thing! Proved to me how awesome my God is. A simple thing like a caterpillar, turned into a breathtakingly beautiful butterfly. The whole process of its exponential growth and final metamorphosis ...... the way it emerges from a tiny package and quickly spreads it damp wings in order to dry..... coils and uncoils it's double proboscis so that it becomes zipped together to function as it was meant to once the butterfly dries and takes flight.....WOW...

Well we have managed to rear without injury our first male monarch. He emerged in all his beauty yesterday and we held off until all of the children were available today to tag and release him. We had the usual "discussions" about who got to hold, stick the tag and subsequently release, but in true I'm a mom to lots of kids I very calmly advised we would no doubt all get a turn after the other five caterpillars did their "thing".

These guys were so small when we got them only 10 days ago. We managed to receive a chrysalis already ready to attach to our milkweed plant with our six caterpillars and within a week the butterfly within became visible.

So cool. We carefully tagged him on the appropriate cell of his hind wing and took him outside to release him. Mexico here he comes!!!