Butterfly Bungalow

Emma wanted a pet butterfly for her birthday. And since we had to give the cat away I figured I had better make this happen. (She says that she wants to become a vet so that she can take care of her cats again when she grows up. It is heartbreaking!) Anyway, I found this Butterfly Bungalow. It is a small tent and you send off for your caterpillars. They could hardly stand the wait for them. Once we got them it only took a few days before they made their cocoons and we transferred them to the tent. There in lied the problem. You can't move them much once they are in their cocoons. Are you kidding?! Give 3 small children a really cool tent and tell them not to touch it. NOT going to happen. So we had to lock the tent up in the master bathroom until the butterflies emerged 9 days later. The girls got to go in and sit by the tent and "check" on them each day, but Liam was banned from our bathroom for almost 2 weeks. Okay, and here is the really gross part. After they emerge whatever dye they don't use for their wings they poo out. It looks like they are bleeding to death and there are puddles of bright red dye all over the tent. I had to go in and scrub the bottom of the tent for the girls to go in and play with the butterflies. It was gross, really gross. Once the girls got into the tent it was hard to get them out. They would just hold out their finger or arm and the butterflies would land on it. They named all 9 of them (We had 11 but one did not emerge and another escaped almost immediately);Abigail, Alisha, Pearl and Marie are the only ones I can remember. Then the day came when I decided to reclaim my bathroom and told the girls it was time for the butterflies to make homes outside so that they could get bigger and have babies. I drug the tent outside and Emma and Page took one out at a time and released it. I must say it was really sweet. Until the last one wouldn't leave. It really would not fly away. Page decided that this meant the butterfly loved her so much that it wanted to live with her in her room forever and ever. (Here comes the drama and the impending meltdown.) I told her that the butterfly would die in the net without any friends or fresh air and it simply must make a home outside of the house. After lots of tears and even attempts at running into the house we made a home for it in the garden right outside the front door. Complete with flowers and sugar water. Then it was time to peel Liam out of the tent and come inside. He nearly lost a limb I had to pull him so hard. He did not want to leave the tent he had been forbidden to come near for so long. I didn't have the heart to put it away so it now takes up a bunch of space in the playroom and the kids play in it every day. But at least it isn't in my bathroom anymore :)