7 butterflies and 2 hermit crabs.
The butterflies were part of a live butterfly kit that Stella got for her birthday. 10 caterpillars showed up at the cottage in August via UPS. Within a week 7 had turned into chrysalises. They survived a car trip back to Brooklyn and, on the first day of school, began to hatch into beautiful butterflies. Within a couple of days all 7 had hatched.
Meanwhile, while at Old Orchard Beach we managed to be gifted two hermit crabs (purchased from a nearby store). The girls loved them and enjoyed having them crawl all over them (which really creeped me out). But keeping hermit crabs is not easy. One had even escaped for the better part of a day and was eventually found hiding behind a large chair. After that, I convinced Stella and Marni that letting them go free was the nicest thing they could do.
So today was "Back to Nature" day.
Next we drove to Coney Island and released Crawly and Baby into the surf near a rock jetty. A little less sweet, but they are now in a better place (and I got to have some Nathan's hot dogs and the girls got to ride some rides).
A win-win-win situation.
Afterwards the girls were a little sad, and Stella was giving me the evil eye. She was a little pissed off that I keep making them get rid of their pets. I promised her that when we get a cat or dog, I won't insist that they let it go into the wild after a few weeks.
I think she bought it.
