Butterfly

Tycee started an insect section at school and started learning a lot about butterflies. They even took a field trip to the Butterfly Pavilion. During this time, we found a chrysalis (I learned from Tycee that it is not a cocoon, those are for moths!!) on our front porch attached to the rocks. So we watched and watched for a couple of weeks, and nothing happened. I started thinking it was dead, but finally, on our way home from Tycee's last day of kindergarten, as we were walking into the house, Tycee noticed the butterfly. It was beautiful!! I was expecting a Monarch or something more common!! We sat and watched it for about five minutes, even Mia sat and watched it, and kept pointing to it saying "pretty!" Then it climed up the wall and flew away. What a fun experience that was, to check on it everyday, and then lucky enough to see it when it came out. If we had been just a couple minutes later, or gone in another door we would have missed it!! Tycee was so excited!!

Isn't it beautiful? I love the blue at the bottom! You can see the chrysalis to the left, amazing that it fit in there!!

*I learned that this is a Tiger Swallowtail, usually found in the eastern United States, and that it is a female, the males do not have the blue on the bottom. How lucky we were that it came this far west!!