End of a Life... and the start of New!

Meet Stripey.

The girls came running inside the house on their birthday excited to have found a new pet. I was excited to see that it was a monarch caterpillar on a milk weed leaf! Oh the science teacher in me was bursting with glee! Quickly I found a large clear vase that was to be Stripey's home for the next couple weeks.

Here you see Stripey already attached upside-down by the silk-button he had made, hanging in the J-shape. It would only take a day hanging upside-down like this before he shed his skin for the last time and form his chrysalis.

Sadly, Stripey waited until the house was really quiet one night to go through his change. I was gone tutoring, and Brad took the girls to the cottage. We all came home to this beautiful green chrysalis!

Then we waited....
The Internet said Stripey would be in his Chrysalis for 9-14 days. I knew that we would be up at Silver Lake during this change, so I convinced Brad to bring him up with him. On day 9 we could start to see the black stripes in the wings show through the green of the chrysalis. On day 10 the chrysalis was no longer green! It was clear and you could see the beautiful orange and black wings of the monarch butterfly! It was all compact, but very distinct! Early in the morning on day 11, while Evie and Daddy were crossing the dunes to the big lake, Stripey broke free from his chrysalis.

His wings were wet and he hung from the clear, torn chrysalis for 2 hours slowly beginning to flap his wings a bit.

Then we decided if he was ever going to fly away we had to take him out in the sun and let him really dry his wings and fly when he was ready. So out to the deck he went!

Here you can see that Stripey was indeed a male this whole time! The extra black dots on his lower wings tell that he is a male butterfly!

The girls watch him with awe! They love Stripey!

Grandma holds him for awhile...

... and then puts him on some nearby leaves while we eat lunch.

Three and a half hours after coming out of his chrysalis Stripey flies!

Fly Stripey fly!

As with anything treasured and beautiful, it was hard to say goodbye. But, it was time to let him go.

On that note, this is also my last blog post. For 5 years I have shared joys, hardships, beauty and laughter of raising triplet girls through this blog. I am so thankful I will always have this record! However, like Stripey, it is time to move on and let it go.

If you want to still keep up on my girls, you can follow us on Facebook :)
Love,
Stacey