have you ever seen a cocoon?

I forgot to mention that, included with our trip to the elephant park was a trip to an orchid and butterfly farm.  (It's all about the group tour here in t-land!)

We were bummed to find out that it's too cold for butterflies right now in this part of thailand (what?  cold?) so there were only a few there, but it was cool to see the butterfly life cycle in action, and even cooler to show it to my girls. 

I personally have never seen a cocoon except in the pages of an Eric Carle book, so this was fun for me too.

So...refresher from elementary science class, yeah?

First you have the little worm (aka, the very hungry caterpillar...)

Then he builds his cocoon...(it looks like a big crunchy fall leaf to me)
(here's a whole flock of butterflies waiting to bust out, I guess):
and then he turns into a beautiful butterfly!  This was one of the few butterflies in the place, so I couldn't get close enough for a good picture, but I had to complete the life cycle.  
So, just in case you were wondering - caterpillar to butterfly, illustrated.  

You're welcome.