Life cycle of a Lime Butterfly
When our woolly caterpillars didn’t emerge out of their cocoons after 3 long weeks, we knew they didn’t make it to the moth stage. Nikita was a little disappointed but she didn’t have much time to think about it since we had to prepare for a long trip back to Singapore! To her surprise, as soon as we touched down and arrived at her grandparents’ house, there were a few caterpillars waiting for her in a plastic terrarium!
This time, we were really lucky. We had seen 7 butterflies (or is it more than 7?) emerged and let go during our stay in Singapore. The children were very excited to see the amazing transformation of the caterpillars right before their eyes. (Actually, I was as excited as them too! 
) Every morning, the children would check on the status of the caterpillars to see how much they had grown and if they had turned into a chrysalis. And when the butterfly hatched, the children and their cousins would gather around to say ‘bye bye’ to the butterfly before letting it go. It was truly a delightful experience and I hope we will be able to do something similar next spring right here in our own house too. 
Here comes more pictures!
Presenting our very own… ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’!
In the light of the moon a little egg lay on a leaf.
One Sunday morning the warm sun came up and – pop!- out of the egg came a tiny
and very hungry caterpillar. He started to look for some food.
On Monday Everyday he ate through one apple green lime leaf. But he was still hungry. After many days… he wasn´t hungry any more – and he wasn´t a little caterpillar any more. He was a big, fat caterpillar!
He built a small house, called a cocoon, around himself. He stayed inside for more than two weeks.
Then he nibbled a hole in the cocoon, pushed his way out and …
he was a beautiful lime butterfly!
And because we love our butterfly and we would like to let nature take its course, we had to let it go!
Bye bye, butterfly! (See note on pix to spot the butterfly.)
by Ange (Earthember)
Reminds me of my many Lime Butterfly projects too. I stopped doing it coz’ I didn’t want my lime tree to go bald. Heheheh.
By the way, would like to invite you to join a free giveaway on my site. I think it will benefit your children.
http://mamasbagoftricks.blogspot.com/2009/09/spellquizzer-review-and-giveaway.html
Thanks, Lian. I will check out your link soon.