We have Monarchs!

On September 6, our Monarch caterpillars morphed themselves into chrysalises, and we have been watching them patiently to see the final step in the process. Although our books say the pupal stage is 9-14 days, ours took 20 days to complete the process. It has been getting pretty cold at night and the day they chose to come out of their "shells" was a nice, warm sunny day, so I wonder if the weather conditions have anything to do with the timing? You will notice that the butterfly on the left has emerged, while the one on the right is just hours away from freedom. About a day before they emerge as butterflies, the green chrysalis turns dark and you can see the black and orange of the new butterfly through the now transparent skin.
Here, the first butterfly is about to be released to freedom.

He chose to fly as far as a leg and rest a bit before saying "Thank you, and goodbye" before heading out to find a mate. This butterfly was a male, shown by the dots on the bottom wings.

Here is a very cool video that someone else made that shows the butterfly life cycle.