The Monarch Experiment

Okay, so not so much of an experiment as just watching a monarch caterpillar turn into a butterfly. One evening Kendal's great friend, Lily, from down the street, brought us over a mason jar with some milkweed and a monarch caterpillar. After a couple of days, John and I noticed that one night the caterpillar was going to town eating those milkweed leaves. So I suspected it was going to turn into a pupa soon. Sure enough, by the next morning it was hanging on the top of the jar, and then by the end of the day it was a pupa. Then, a little over a week later, we saw it get really dark, and the next day you could see the wings through the pupa. We knew it was soon! Luckily it was the 4th of July, so we kept checking on it every few minutes, and got to see it emerge from the pupa! So cool! It came out with its wings all curled up, but after about a half hour they were completely opened. The next day we set him free, and imagined that he flew over to the outlot next to us filled with lots of goodies for butterflies. Kendal and Mason thought that this was the coolest, so maybe we'll do it again next year.