Cole started Kindergarten in 2013 and one of his first really fun class assignments was "Dress up as your favorite invertebrate day." His classroom had studied invertebrates, including having a keeper actually come to the school and introduce them to some invertebrates! We were supposed to use items from home to create a free costume.
Well, giving Cole total control over his costume, he requested a Morpho butterfly (he has a giant insect encyclopedia and naturally blue being his favorite color, the morpho is his favorite of the butterfly family).
I quickly assembled the basic of his costume: black long-sleeved pajamas for his body coupled with black socks/shoes. A black headband quickly became a base for antennae (made from brown/black puffy pipe cleaners). The wings were challenging.
Brandon free handed the shape of the wings on cardboard while looking at the picture of the butterfly in Cole's insect book. Why yes my five year old does read expository books intended for adults.
After B cut out the wings, he took them outside and spray painted them with a white primer we had on hand.
Then it was my turn! I mixed a blue that I wasn't hating for the base. Then I mixed varying shades of deeper blues to shade the wings. Finally, I mixed brown/black to make veins on the wings.
I think they came out nicely enough, but I wish the top left veins weren't so dark compared to the others.
Finally, I edged the entire wings in brown and painted the visible part of the hanger black to disguise it as best we could.
I love how it turned out.
I had to work the following morning so Brandon was sure to snap lots of pictures of a very happy Cole who suggested a need for a tongue. Brandon grabbed a bendy straw and quickly painted the base red.
Love him. I'm fairly certain he was the only male butterfly in his class, but he's wonderful.
Look at that wonderful black front. No one suspects he's a beautiful butterfly yet!
