Monarch transformation

The other day, I showed you a few pictures of the 12 Monarch chrysalides that my daughters and I have been watching. Well! Today, we were able to release 4 Monarch butterflies! They were being a bit stubborn and wouldn't open their wings yet but can you see all 4 of them in this shot? (Note: please ignore the weeds in the lava rocks. I detest pulling weeds out of this stuff.)

My 6 year old had a blast helping me release them.

My 3 yr old was also present but she wasn't allowed to touch. She's too rough.

Not long after we took them outside and put them on the buttercups, a storm started brewing. The winds kicked up, the rain started and there was thunder & lightning everywhere. I moved the buttercups (still in their nursery pots because I'm a slacker) to a protected spot on the porch until the butterflies flew away.

One of the butterflies decided to chill on an old bench on my porch.

The remaining 8 chrysalides have transformed into this:

You can easily make out the wings and the bright jade color is changing. I hope to be releasing more Monarchs tomorrow.

The 23 black swallowtail caterpillars devoured every single leaf off my 2 parsley plants (I bought another one today & even planted it in the herb bed!) and I'm now finding these all over my yard:

This one is on my bell pepper plant.

We see this every year but it absolutely amazes me each and every time I witness it. How can a chrysalis be so small but still hold one of these full-size butterflies!? It's simply awesome.

Happy gardening! :-)