Saturday fun

The butterflies have all emerged! Isn't it exciting? The first three had emerged yesterday morning, and then the last 2 this morning. Luckily the only surviving rose bush in our yard still had some blooms, so I went and snipped 3 to put in. (Of course, I had to shake them really well, there was a spider and another big bug on them....I wasn't going to willingly bring them inside!)

It is really hard to take pictures through the mesh and the plastic. In this one, one of the butterflies was checking out the flowers (which we sprinkled with sugar water). Did you know that butterflies taste with their feet? Now you do.

After watching the butterflies for a bit, we went to a graduation party for 2 of the younger cousins. (I still can't believe how big they are all getting....now we have the younger cousins!) The above shot is from a game of musical chairs (organized by the big kids- who all made sure to let the little ones play)

After we got home. I wanted a picture of me in the skirt I made (for the record, I love it. It is exactly how I wanted it to be. I am very pleased with how it turned out. ) You can also see some progress on the house painting project, the ballisters on the railings are done in the shutter color. I just have to do a final sanding on the shutters so they can get painted.

The best of the pictures of the three. The dresses look really cute on the Maggie and Cassie. They were still able to run and play at the party even though they were in a dress. I thought Nate looked cute in his Hawaiian shirt and it kind of went with what the girls were in.

You've got mail!

We got a small box in the mail yesterday, and the kids were very excited about it!

The box says live butterflies, but it had in it five Painted Lady caterpillars, and everything the caterpillars need to grow into butterflies.

It isn't the best picture, but those black things are the caterpillars. According to the little paper that came with them, they spin silk to move more easily and protect them. (I never knew that) Also according to the paper we will notice little green balls of frass starting to accumulate. What is frass you ask? Caterpillar poop.

So now we wait, approximately 7-10 days for them to start the change into chrysalids. The kids have been asking every hour if they are butterflies yet. That won't happen until about 7-10 days after they make their chrysalids.

Why are we raising caterpillars? Well, a few month ago the kids received a box in the mail from my cousin, and it had this in it. (We waited until it warmed up to send for them!) It is from Insect Lore

It should be neat. When Lino and I got married, we released butterflies after the service. We ordered 100 of them from Butterfly Celebration . They came to us already in the chrysalid stage and we had to put them in cute little boxes and wait for them to hatch. Which, conveniently enough happened 2 days before the wedding!