Exciting News...

The Eastern Tiger Swallowtail caterpillar we decided to over winter emerged from its chrysalis.  The boys had checked a couple of times to see if it had emerged.  Today Bo went to the shop and ran out screaming, "he hatched, he hatched"  He couldn't find him so we began a search party.  I moved a box fan that was near the jar and this is what we found...

The fan had a hole in it and the butterfly had gotten inside.  We took the front of the fan off and rescued our new friend.  We were all so excited.  Little Bitty couldn't stop signing butterfly and saying "pie, pie".  The boys were so afraid we were going to hurt its wings trying to rescue it from the fan.  Our rescue mission was a success...

Isn't it beautiful?

We took this picture just before the butterfly flew away.  We stood watching it for at least 15 minutes.  It would soar high on the wind and land in a tree then back to the ground.  We noticed at least five other butterflies while we were watching ours.  There was even another tiger swallowtail fly by us.  Bo hoped it was a girl and would meet our boy butterfly.  Then they could have baby butterflies.  This was such a fun surprise!
And of course we took the time to sketch this beauty...