Farewell to the Butterflies

No, they didn't die. I finally talked Danielle into setting them free. I know she was sad about letting them go, but it was the right thing to do. As soon as we took their little home outside into the sunshine, they started flapping all over the place. They obviously really enjoyed being outside. That made the kids feel a little better.

She and Tyler took turns letting them go one at a time. They each flew a little way and then rested in the grass for a minute. A couple of them hung around for quite awhile after we set them free, and Danielle was sure she saw one fly across the yard a couple hours later. Danielle mentioned several times tonight that she misses her butterflies. I think she might use some of her birthday money to buy more caterpillars (which is much better than buying more Barbies).





Here are a couple videos. (I did not prompt her to say anything.) As a side note, our yard really needs some rain!!










After we released the butterflies and were sitting outside enjoying the weather, Tyler was suddenly struck by a creative bug. He became very excited as he explained to me how we should spend the rest of the afternoon creating rockets "with nose cones" out of boxes. (We saw Space Chimps yesterday. I think that's why he was thinking about rockets.) That wasn't exactly what I had planned for the rest of the day, but he was so excited. Saying no would have crushed him. And really, what a great way to encourage creative thinking and problem solving! I am also mindful of the time we have left before school starts. In only a little over a week, Tyler will be gone all day, 5 days a week. It will be a little more difficult to fit in projects like these.





I rounded up some supplies, and they got busy. The rockets evolved into airplanes. The kids did all the designing, I just cut. (I did even out some of Danielle's lines a bit as I cut.) After they decorated the pieces, we taped everything together and the kids took off. They pretended the yard was a runway and even gave rides to their stuffed animals. (The pose for the last picture was Tyler's idea.)

It took us 2 1/2 hours to complete the airplanes. That was 150 minutes of no fighting, just being together and working hard. That was better than anything on my agenda for today.