Butterfly Garden

 We are getting close to wrapping up the end of Kindergarten! I have really enjoyed the
My Father's World curriculum and I love all of the hands-on activities. It's hard for me
to do them sometimes, but generally the kids have so much fun when we do. 

I was really excited for the butterfly unit and wanted to put a little more into it than
some of the others. In Bible we learned about how God makes us new. 

This was the highlight of my year right here:

Beemer told me during Bible time he wants God to make him new and live inside his heart.
I talked to him in more detail about what it means and said let's pray, fully intending to do the praying. Before I could, he started praying and telling God he wants Him to make him new
and live inside his heart. Oh my word, sweetest moment ever! The next day when I mentioned
God making us new he said "So, everybody but Sister". I asked him further about it and
he told me that he was being made new too because he prayed the day before.

One of the things I really enjoy is field trips related to our studies. For butterfly we visited
Texas Discovery Gardens and saw their butterfly house. It was so neat! Beemer enjoyed it a little more than Sister. The whole thing starts upstairs on a bridge and Sister wasn't a fan. She also is squeemish about flying things, any guesses where she got that from?

This was a long field trip day. Before heading to Discovery we spent the morning
at a local community college touring their vet tech building. This was unrelated to butterflies,
but a really fun trip. You can see those pictures here.

I wish I could remember what he was saying,
something about how God created everything!

Trying to have a butterfly land on their hands.
Mom went to the garden in Missouri and had much better luck.
Probably something about her sitting still for more than a few seconds.

Watching the caterpillars eat.

Butterfly hands again.

Sister: Can we go yet?

Can you see that huge moth he's looking at?

This butterfly had just emerged,
his wings were metallic blue on one side.

Touching a butterfly wing.

Then we headed outside to wander the actual Gardens. It was pretty, but not super enjoyable with little children. I think they offer free admission on Tuesdays (Gardens only). Pricing is very reasonable for the whole thing though and we parked for free.

We made one more pass through the butterfly house.

These two were really, ahem, close to each other.
When they flew off and didn't detach I figured it was time to move on!

Lots off Chrysalis waiting to emerge.

Additionally, for this unit we purchased a butterfly kit. You can see our release pictures here.
We also checked out a Story Kit from out library about bugs/butterflies and enjoyed
Spring weather while reading some books. The kids loved pretending to go through
the caterpillar process. After we did it once they kept going!

Eggs on a leaf.

Rolling around in the Chrysalis, not that Chrysalis roll!

Emerging.

Cutest caterpillars I've seen!

Flapping their newly formed wings!

Getting a drink of nectar.

I don't buy juice often so this was a special treat.

Ahhh, I think I'll just lay here.

And then the fun kept going! They wrapped each other up, rolled each other around
the yard and encouraged their chrysalis to open. "Hey, Chrysalis, come out!