Metamorphosis

At Charlotte's school, they had the "Butterfly Guy" come visit recently.  He visited last year too, and though I'm sure she thought it was interesting then, we did not participate in the "home" hatching. 

We did, however, participate this year and had so much fun doing it. 

They presented this tiny chrysalis in such beautiful packaging: a tiny clay pot with moss covering the top, decorative sticks for the chrysalis to hang from and a little added touch from the grosgrain ribbon and card with projected birthday of the Monarch hatching.

Here is the chrysalis within a few days from hatching. Note the gold markings on the chrysalis; those are natural from the caterpillar in making her cocoon. (Notice: I say "her" because Charlotte was convinced it was a female butterfly)

 Just a day away from hatching...

 Within an hour of hatching....

Voila! 

She's here!

 I left home to pick Charlotte up from school and we came home to this!

When I asked Charlotte what she wanted to name her butterfly, she answered, "Charlotte the Butterfly". Of course, what other name would she name her. I was pulling for Marty the Monarch, or even Molly the Monarch, but we settled on Charlotte the Butterfly. 

 Here, both Charlottes are, getting to know each other. 

Charlotte was so very proud of her butterfly and was so gentle with her. 

We got a really sweet video of the 2 right after the butterfly's wings were hard enough to hold. 

Here, Charlotte the Butterfly, has been set free in our Japanese Red Maple in the front yard. 

We like to think now that she is well on her way to Mexico for her migration. I ended up telling Charlotte that Charlotte the Butterfly's mom and dad came to pick her up and was taking her to Mexico for the big butterfly party. She seemed to understand that logic but then quickly stated that she was going to get her butterfly wings so that she could go to the party too. 

Got to love how smart and quick she is!!

Justin and I totally enjoyed this process as much as Charlotte did. We're looking forward to more butterfly hatching in our future. 

It's also very appropriate for the presenting of the new blog design. I went back and forth trying to decide what to do and finally found a great company through my cousin that assisted me with the entire process. They were super great to work with and would HIGHLY recommend them to anyone that would like a "redo".