Fly away butterfly, fly away

This summer our backyard was filled with butterflies. On some days we would see 10 butterflies. Jackson and Aubrin would always stop what they were doing to watch them flutter. If they landed the kids would tip toe up behind them to try and get a closer look. With all of the curiosity about butterflies, Jackson asked grandma and grandpa Olenech for a butterfly house for his birthday. We had to send away for the caterpillars and it took a couple of weeks for them to arrive. Every day Jackson would eagerly wait to see if they were in the mailbox. Finally they came. I think he was slightly disappointed when I told him that he could not play with the caterpillars, but I told him that they had to stay safe in their house. Once they inched their way to the top of the container and turned into chrysalis we could then put them in the butterfly house. They sat in Jackson's room on his dresser. The first thing he did every morning was check and see if they had turned into butterflies yet. One evening Jackson went upstairs and he was very surprised to see a butterfly fluttering around in the butterfly house. Jackson was very concerned that it didn't have anything to eat or drink. We had been talking about what butterflies eat and drink prior to the arrival of our new fluttering friend. Jackson knew that they liked sweet juices so he decided that we should put watermelon in the butterfly house. With help from daddy, Jackson carefully put the watermelon in the house. Right away the butterfly landed on it. Jackson and Aubrin just stared and thought it was great. Over the next couple of days the other three butterflies hatched.

Last weekend we decided we should let the butterflies go. Jackson was a bit sad, but we told him they would live in our flowers and we could visit with them again next summer. I didn't have the heart to tell him that butterflies life expectancy any is 4 weeks, but that's another lesson on another day. Jackson and Aubrin were able to hold a butterfly before they flew away. As they were flying away Aubrin was saying, "Fly away butterfly, fly away."