Butterfly Farm

Welcome to our science experiment. Beware . . . you will learn more than you ever wanted to about Monarch caterpillars and butterflies. As I mentioned earlier, Jacob received a butterfly farm from his grandparents for his birthday. Since then we have been hunting for milkweed leaves daily, cleaning out very poopy jars, and watching this process! I have to say that as much fun as the kids had watching our caterpillars Brandon and I enjoyed it even more! You would have thought that they were our own newborn children with as many pictures as we took (but they kind of were since we nurtured them through their short childhood)! We ordered the caterpillars off of the internet, and due to shipping brutality (we think) we had about a 60% mortality rate with the caterpillars. It's a good think we ordered a lot! We ended up with 5 great chrysalises! Here are lots of pictures and even some cool videos we caught of the process!

Here is a tiny caterpillar on his 1st day in our home. (We didn't know when he hatched out of his egg, so we don't really know how old he is at this big.)

Here's a caterpillar just 1 week later at almost 2 inches long! They eat constantly, poop tons, and therefore grow very quickly!

After they get almost 2 inches long they spend about 1/2 a day crawling around on the lid of the jar spinning lots of silk so they can attach themselves to the lid. Then they hang in a "J" for another 1/2 a day.

Here's a video of the amazing process of turning into a chrysalis. They molt 1 last time. His skin splits open from the back of his head, his face literally peels right off and he's green underneath! This only takes about 5 minutes, so it's hard to catch! I waited an hour and a half to catch this pathetic video! Argh! (Sorry for the blurry video! Brandon gave me a lesson on focusing after this!)

A fully formed chrysalis!!!

After about 10 days the chrysalis turns clear but looks black. You can see the butterfly right inside. It's clear like this for about 8 hours or so.

After my focusing lesson I caught this video of a butterfly hatching from it's chrysalis!!!

A newborn butterfly with crinkly wings! They'll fill out as he flaps them.

Look at its tongue! It's the curly string coming out of its mouth! Cool!

This girl butterfly loved my nephew, Lincoln. She wouldn't fly away, but just crawled around on him for a good hour. He was very patient. You can tell she's a girl because of the 2 black dots in the center of her bottom wings.

A boy butterfly - see no dots! This truly was an amazing process and one we'll definitely do again! What a beautiful world we live in. Heavenly Father truly created some very beautiful creatures!

Happy Birthday, Sweetheart!

This is one reason I love my sweet husband. He's willing to do big projects for me to beautify our home! And he's good at it too! He truly is everything I could have ever hoped for and more! Thanks for everything, Brandon! I love you!

That's One Way To Do It!

Brandon heard Jonah crying and this is what he found! "Help me! I'm stuck!" is what he seemed to say. At least he was smart enough to put his doggy underneath him 1st for cushioning!

Oh, Man! Not Again With The Face!!!

If this happens again I think our neighbors just might turn us in to the authorities!

1st Day of School

And so it begins . . . the stage of life with school-age children! I have been waiting for this stage for YEARS! I've been dreaming of volunteering in my children's classrooms so that I can be back in the school setting, but as a parent this time. We are LOVING school! The kids love school, I love the routine, we love the little walk to and from the school, and I love that Jacob is only gone half the day right now. What will I do next year when he's gone ALL day?

Here is Jacob ready for his first day of Kindergarten! He loves his teacher and friends. He's convinced he's the smartest in the class because he's the oldest! No harm in letting him think that! We'll hope for self-fulfilling expectations. After much stress, prayer, discussion, reading research, and pulling my hair out only to be replaced by grays we finally decided to put him in the French-immersion program being started at the school. I'm sure my neighbors are all shaking their heads at my reluctance and then change of heart. They all recognized the great opportunity before them and had their kids in MONTHS ago . But me, no, I had to make it HARD, just like I do with everything. Now I love it, am grateful we put Jacob in it, and HE loves it! We can't wait to hear him speaking fluent French! Too bad Mom and Dad can't help him at home. Our instructions from the teacher were if you can't speak French, then DON'T try! It's exciting and we look forward to what will come of it.

Sarah started her first day of preschool this week! It's so hard for Sarah sometimes to compete with the exciting life Jacob leads as the oldest child with all the new experiences. I'm so grateful to finally have something just for Sarah to look forward to and report on! She's so happy and begs to go every day! Too bad Sarah's and Jacob's schedules don't coincide a little better. Jonah and I get a very brief 20 minutes of alone time. Oh well. It'll be better next year. The important thing is that Jacob and Sarah love school and they're having successful experiences!

Happy Birthday Jacob!!!

Jacob had his 6th birthday last month! He had a family party, and chose dinosaurs for his theme! He had a great day beginning with a soccer game. Then we went to an emergency preparedness fair where he got to eat popsicles and climb all over fire trucks, search and rescue 4-wheelers, and ambulances. We ate all his favorite foods including french toast, pizza and corn dogs (hmmm . . . healthy)! Then we decorated and had his party! We love having so much extended family nearby to help us celebrate!

Jacob is SIX! I can't believe it!!!

Jacob got a stopwatch from Sarah and Jonah, Lego's from Aunt Kristen, a baseball mitt and ball from Grandpa, clothes from Grandma, and a butterfly farm from Nanny and Papa. Jacob received a bike from Mommy and Daddy earlier in the summer so he could enjoy it (and, boy, has he)!

Jacob is carefully holding a leaf with a baby caterpillar on it!

Jacob and Mommy with his dinosaur cake!

We are so blessed to have Jacob in our family! I am constantly amazed at how much alike, in EVERY way, Jacob is like his dad! He is such a good boy, very responsible, a huge help to Mommy, very artistic, extremely social and friendly, and a great cuddler!

Brandon's grandmother passed away last month due to age related complications. Grandma was always fun to be around and very spunky! She loved her family, playing the piano, and roses. She also loved Burger King and went almost everyday for lunch. All the workers knew her well. Despite her heart condition, her philosophy was if you're going to die, die happy! She was 91 when she died and still living at home, so it seems to have worked well for her! She was an amazing pianist and continued to play right up until she passed away. We'll miss you, Grandma!

Grandma in her younger days! Wasn't she beautiful?

Here's a more recent picture of Grandma! Still beautiful!

Brandon and his cousins were the pallbearers.

Natalie, Brett, Donna, Kent, Shauna and Brandon at the cemetery.

Here's our family at the cemetery. The kids each got to put a flower on the casket. And all the little great-granddaughters chose a necklace of Grandma's to keep. The girls in our family all wore theirs to the funeral. Here's Sarah with her necklace!