She's a Natural!

Just look what silliness I have to deal with on a daily basis!

She walked around with these on all day--

Some teenagers came over to hang out, and before I knew it, two of them had these on too!! Made, of course, by Super G.

What a laugh...

Ping Pong Hatched

New butterfly hatched today. Always a miracle. I love when the chrysalis turns black. You can see through it--the butterfly markings are clearly visible.


After hatching, this one fell to the bottom of our little "cage." It landed feet up, wriggling like crazy, trying to grab onto something so that it could hang and dry its wings. I had to quick run outside and get a stick. Held it ever so carefully by the flailing legs, let it grab on. Here's a photo of me holding the stick, trying to figure out how the heck to get the little guy back into the cage so it could hang properly. You can also see the empty chrysalis, now clear.


Success! The wings look perfect. Once they open, we will be able to tell if it's a girl or a boy butterfly. Hatching anew is very tiring. The butterfly is hanging now, motionless, and will do so for hours.

(I shot this photo through the netting. With flash, you can't even tell!)

Butterfly Pics of the Day

Yes, we are hatching butterflies again this summer! Here are a couple recent photos of different stages.
Cute, fat caterpillar. "J" stage. New in chrysalis.


The chrysalis photo--this was an interesting process. When it is ready, it goes from the "J" on the left, to the chrysalis on the right. The yellow parts of the caterpillar stripes slowly morph into green and then merge together. On the right, you can still kind of see the stripe markings of the caterpillar. The process takes oh about a 1/2 hour. It was pretty cool to watch.

We now have 3 in chrysalis, 5 caterpillars or various sizes, and one teeny one that just hatched. We should have a couple new butterflies in the next few days!

Birthday Party

G had a nice old-fashioned outdoor bday party 2 Saturdays ago. They played outdoor games, like 3-legged race, red rover, couple relays, water balloon toss, and after make-your-own ice cream sundaes, there was a pinata. Her 2 older sisters each had a friend come to help with games, equipment etc. Fun fun! And a very nice group of kids.

Butterfly #4-Release

Today we released Butterfly #4. His wings are a little rumpled, so we weren't sure what would happen. First he just fluttered in the grass...
After I dropped off 2 girls to the Y, he was still there, so I nudged him a bit, hoping to get him into the flower bed, which seemed to me to be a much safer place. He started flying! Circling, smaller circles, then bigger, first about 1-2 feet off the ground, then gradually higher. He landed on the maple tree branch. Now is resting there. He's close to the flowers, so that is good.

Butterfly!

This new butterfly hatched in about 40 minutes while I was downstairs working-yes really. It is fully formed and beautiful. The wings are wet. I can't tell gender yet until I see open wings (males have an extra set of black spots at the bottom of each wing).

Welcome to the world -- again!!

Chrysalis-Final Stage

Chrysalis #1 (of 4) turned black overnight. With the illumination of the camera with flash, you can see the wing pattern! I am really getting a kick out of this. Won't be long before the butterfly hatches.

I am shooting photos through the clear plastic top of the butterfly house so as not to disturb the little guy, so there's a bit of a reflection and it's hard to get a clear photo. This one we attached to the top of the house with duct tape. :)Here you can see the top of the house with 2 chrysalises (and duct tape)-fuzzy, but there you have it.

Ladyhawk Soccer in Finals

Tonight there was an extremely competitive well-fought soccer game between the Ladyhawks and the navy blue team (don't know the name...).

The girls played their hearts out, and we ended up coming in 2nd. Cool trophies!!!

It has been so fun to watch the team come together and improve and most importantly have fun.

Thanks for a great season!


















The "awarded photographer" took this one of me...and A. and her friend M. made a cake for the team, which was a big hit!

Softball Fun-Tournament

This weekend was the annual softball tournament. The Cubs had some ups and downs, but overall did well. They went 1-3 for the tourney, and their win was against the eventual champion!!

S. did some pitching...she did beautifully!!

Caterpillars-More

Wow, these things grow fast! Last night the first one went into "J" mode, in the little bug house we bought, which isn't particularly suited for this. I ordered a nicer house on eBay, hope it comes soon!!

Last Tuesday...
Saturday...








Sunday...

Butterfly Farm!

Our neighbor from down the street, a very nice boy we know mainly from the bus stop, showed us through example how to raise butterflies.

-- Find Monarch eggs on milkweed leaves (usually the underside). They are quite small, a little bit smaller than a pinhead.
-- In anywhere from 1-5 days, a caterpillar will hatch. So far ours are little, maybe 1/4", and gray with black heads.
-- Give them fresh milkweed leaves every day to eat.
-- After a while they will find a nice spot to hang and make a "J", then a chrysalis.
-- Then the butterfly hatches. Feed it fresh fruit (like oranges, even watermelon).
-- Once the wings are formed, set it free!

Repeat...

We have currently I think 2 caterpillars and 1-2 eggs in one container, and 2 caterpillars and 1 egg in another container.

I don't know who is having more fun so far with this process, me or the girls (mostly G-6 years old)!!!

Here's a teeny baby caterpillar (about 1 day old) and an egg in the same shot, and then another caterpillar. Just click on the photos to see a closer view.

Baby Birds-again!

Another neighbor has a little nest in their hanging basket of purple petunias on their front porch! (we observed some little birdies earlier in the summer). Again, they are little gray sparrows. You can see one egg and a little little just-born birdie, here. I tried to get a shot of the mother bird, but she was so skittish she flew away whenever I raised my camera!

Perfect Summer Day

The perfect summer day:
- Wake up, read for a little while (Sue Grafton S Is for Silence), with coffee.
- Go to the pool, have fun and get a bit sunburned. Read and finish novel.
- Do a few chores around the house, do a couple errands.
- Have a delicious taco salad dinner with fresh fruit and family/friends.
- Go to the park, pitch to daughter #2, chat and play at park.
- Have Italian Ice for dessert.
- Play with sparklers (little ones and bigger ones) in the dark.

Yes!!
:)

Neighborhood Fun!

Last weekend we enjoyed two fun neighborhood events: the annual block party, which is always held on the last day of school, and a graduation pool party for the young man across the street.

Fun times!