Metamorphosis- Our Painted Lady Butterflies

Here is the sequenced collection of our caterpillar to butterfly photos  :-)

The caterpillars on July 20th

The caterpillars on July 24th

July 25th--Just one caterpillar still crawling on top, in jar on left

July 26th-- Chrysalides!

Chrysalides

The caterpillars forming "J's" on July 25th

More views from July 25th

Decorating the cover for the butterfly habitat

Phaedra and Alanah decorating the lid and Charli

The completed cover with a sun drawn on the "butterfly" side

The butterflies!

This is the closest we got to seeing one actually emerge from the chrysalis

Brian and Alanah watching the new butterflies

We brought in hydrangeas and put a cotton ball and honey water in a tiny cup

We took one last good look at our butterflies before we brought them out to release them

The plastic wrap on top made it much lighter inside the habitat

Outside- a few butterflies are already at the top

Carefully removing the plastic

Phaedra had one land right on her shoulder

If we put our finger out very slowly and gently, the butterfly would crawl on to it!

Lelia

Clover with the second habitat

And we are ready to release the next 5 butterflies

Alanah holds one carefully

It stayed there for a long time!

Then it flew into the grass and Clover tried to get it to climb onto her finger

Clover has the butterfly!

We love our butterflies! Sometimes we still see one fly by when we are playing outside!

Wednesday August 29, 2012 First Day of School!

B~ cheerios, fresh strawberries, milk (Phaedra had cooked 10 grain cereal)
L~ grilled cheese sandwiches, zucchini, tomato soup to drink
S~ watermelon, graham crackers, water

Boy was it quiet here today! Especially after yesterday's full house!
Alanah, Phaedra and Joey are so big now! First graders wow! :-)

We read The Pirates ABC book, the kids really like it. We made a mess from the porch to the playroom but we cleaned it all up before we went out today. Outside, I picked up the overflow of toys out there, and it is looking *much* better! :-)

My baby is in 8th grade now!

Phaedra

Phaedra and Lelia

Charli, Phaedra and AJ

Alanah

Off they go!

They never looked back :-)

Boog inside the firetruck

Lelia, AJ and Brendan. Addison is holding the kids clock

Addison and Lelia playing with the robin puppets from the library

AJ is the mommy robin and Lelia has the babies in the nest-- they were spoon feeding the birds and Addison said the mother robin had to go to the grocery store for blueberries- worms were yucky

Charli and Brendan with the race track

Brendan, Lelia, Addison and Charli

Now to fix some people food

Outside! We found a slug on the football :-)

Lelia, Brendan, Charli, and AJ waiting for the bus

Here's Joey!

Alanah and Phaedra

The girls look tired but Joey is so happy to see his dad!

Joey's dad, Al and Joey

Our three 1st Graders!