Clara Caterpillar

During the first week of September, Grandma Westra brought Dylan and Hannah a monarch caterpillar she found in a field of milkweed. Since we've read "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" over and over again, they seemed to know the life cycle of a butterfly. However, it is a whole other thing to SEE it! The kids loved watching Clara munch away on her leaves. I must say that I enjoyed it too! :) It was amazing to see how quickly she could eat one leaf.

Two weeks later, Clara stopped eating and seemed ready to turn into her chrysalis. We were on pins and needles watching her every move, which we couldn't predict. During the first 2 weeks, she stayed on her milkweed plant the whole time. Now she was crawling all over her box and onto the table. Finally one evening, she started to hang upside down! We were so excited to see her in the morning!

Unfortunately, Clara did not turn into a chrysalis. Dylan thought if we put her outside by the flowers she would start moving again, so we did... Fortunately, Grandma Westra had another caterpillar named Fred who did turn into a chrysalis. We lived vicariously through Fred. Last Saturday, she said Fred's chrysalis was starting to turn color. Dylan was pretty excited about this, as he knew eventually he could see the colors of the wings through the chrysalis. We went over to see and sure enough, the once green chrysalis was becoming translucent. Late Saturday afternoon, Grandma called to tell us Fred was now a butterfly! How exciting! Here are some pictures from Tuesday, right before we let Fred (aka Clara) fly away to Mexico.

We'll have to look for another caterpillar next fall. It is quite a miracle to see this transformation! God is an amazing Creator!