butterfly kisses.

The boys recently received little caterpillars as a favor at a friend’s birthday party. The caterpillars came with food and instructions on how to care for these little bugs in order for them to emerge as butterflies.

Ben and Nathan were thrilled. This was their favorite Eric Carle book come to life. They couldn’t wait to watch these caterpillars eat cake and lollipops and apples and sausage and ice cream and then build a little cocoon and then magically transform into a butterfly! It was all so exciting.

Except that it took way longer than the fifteen minutes that they expected. They were bored with the little caterpillars in the teeny plastic cups after about two and a half minutes. And, they couldn’t believe the lie they’ve been told all this time about the very hungry caterpillar eating cupcakes and such.

Each morning, the boys would run down to check on their respective caterpillar’s progress. It became a competition to see who would become a butterfly first.

Meanwhile, I would say a prayer each morning that these caterpillars would do their thing and not actually be “asleep” {aka- mom killed the caterpillars because she was too lazy to read all the way through that darn instruction manual}.

Mercifully, the butterflies emerged from their cocoons one morning after growing for what felt like an eternity! The boys cheered and I sighed in relief.

However, it was freezing outside so we had to care for them for days before releasing them into the great, wide world. And, there weren’t any flowers outside to give them so we had to use tissue with sugar water {let’s be honest, I probably could have found some flowers but that’s a lot of work in the middle of a really late winter}.

We finally had a warm enough day last week to send the butterflies on their way. It was such a fun release…

{oh, yes, the boys are not wearing pants again. what is it with these two refusing to wear a full set of clothing?!}

As we watched the butterflies take in their new surroundings, Nathan said he thought they were going to “fly to Africa to visit S.”

Ben agreed.

Could that be any sweeter?

Yes, we all agreed that morning that these butterflies would trek across the ocean to give our girlie butterfly kisses from each of us. Isn’t that a nice thought?

Naive? Yes. But I don’t mind.

I personally think a little hope in the form of innocent trust and faith from two brothers waiting to meet their sister is refreshing.