Attack of the butterflies

So, this weekend was a busy one. It started with a bang on Friday night while I was brushing Ari's hair before bedtime. I noticed that there seemed to be a few pieces that were shorter than the rest. I asked Ari if she had cut her hair with scissors, and she softly admitted that she had. When we asked her what she'd done with the hair, she said she'd put it in the laundry basket in our bedroom... and sure enough, there was a clump of hair hidden underneath a sweatshirt in the basket. So not only did she lop off a chunk of hair, but she hid the evidence, the little rascal. Luckily, her hair doesn't look too bad. It just kind of looks like she has side bangs.

Tony's dad came for a visit, and one of the things we did on Saturday was go to a nearby butterfly conservatory. Basically, they have a huge indoor garden area where you can walk around, and there are hundreds of butterflies flying loose. It was pretty cool. And I have pictures.

Ari, sitting on a bench outside the gardens. I think she was flapping like a butterfly.

They had these feeders throughout the conservatory... I think they had sugar water in them.

I felt bad for this guy... he was missing a big chunk out of one wing. The workers kept picking him up and putting him on a tree, but he kept trying to fly and ended up on the ground. Hopefully no one stepped on him.

These butterflies had transparent wings... it was really cool to watch them fly.

Another butterfly...

Some of them were really huge. You can't really tell in this picture...

...so here is one of those really colorful ones with Ari, for scale. (You can kind of see the results of her haircut in this picture... that little chunk of hair over her right eye was NOT that short before.)

Ari was a bit pouty while we were there because she wanted so badly for one to land on her. Tony finally assisted her by getting this one on his hand and then transferring it to her. She was in HEAVEN.

And here she is with Pappy (Tony's dad).

And of course we had to come home with one of these... a monarch caterpillar.

I know you probably can't read the little card, but it says that he should form a chrysalis within a day or so. Sure enough, this morning, I found this...

I don't know what that black thing dangling is, but it looks suspiciously like a part of the caterpillar, and I hope it doesn't mean anything bad. The butterfly should "hatch" in a week to 10 days, so that should be fun to watch.