The Crazee Chick's View of Life

Big Momma and Launcher were re-born today as butterflies! We didn't see it happen; I checked at around 9:00am and when I checked again at 11:00-ish there they were! It was such an exciting moment. I feel like a proud momma all over again. In this video you will also see 'Twitchy' forming a chrysalis. I thought that they spun a chrysalis but after doing a bit of reading the kids and I learned that they actually split their skin and so the chrysalis seems to form from the inside out. I'll have to learn more about this. So...in the video you can hear us commenting about how he's hula hooping and spinning but in actuality he's splitting. Ick. After letting the butterflies dry their wings we took one out and hand fed it. What a neat experience to have a butterfly in your hands and then watch as it's proboscis comes out and begins drinking the sugar water. I gave each of the kids a taste of the water (we made a whole cup of it) and Zee loved it (figures eh?) and K...

Well, all 30 of our caterpillars have moved on. They've passed the larvae stage and are now in the pupa stage. It's been amazing to watch how instinct takes over and causes the mature caterpillar to climb to the top of the lid, hang down and eat and then 'accordion' itself up and begin spinning a chrysalis. It is quite an aerobic exercise to do so. They 'hula-hoop' for a while and then rest. They repeat this process a number of times and then suddenly they begin to swing back and forth so hard that it's impossible to believe they don't fall off! It's the funniest thing to watch. As with a watched pot that never boils, it's hard to see the progress that the caterpillar is making but if you go away for awhile when you come back the whole process is complete! So now we sit and wait....watching the brown chrysalis with the gold markings hanging, hanging, hanging....until who knows when! Can't wait until they break forth as butterflies. I only h...

I've cleaned caterpillar pooh! Oh my! Am I sinking lower in the proverbial 'chain' or ascending higher? I'm not sure. All I know is I could not look at these massive caterpillars (oh how they've grown!) starve because they couldn't get to their pooh covered food! I can not believe how much waste these larvae produce. Maybe Al Gore and the environmentalists should worry less about *our* waste output and concentrate on the insect kingdom...after all they out number humans by like a billion to one so maybe they are the main contributors to global warming! Hmmm.... Oh, by the way...the technical term for caterpillar pooh is FRASS. Use that in a sentence three times today and it's yours forever! FRASS, FRASS, FRASS....'Caterpillars produce copious amounts of FRASS!' There...now that word is mine for the eternities. How fortunate!

We got our butterfly larvae yesterday--more than 30 of them! The kids named them all: there's Superfly, Launcher, Caddie (as in Woodlawn), Sunshine, Marigold, Artist, Petunia, Mona Lisa (because they're Painted Ladies), Big Momma (the fat one), Einstein, Cookie, and Chocolate Chip to name a few. We had a bit of work to do after receiving them: we had to mix their food, transfer them from the 'communal living quarters' via paintbrush into their own 'condominiums' and then punch multiple airholes into the lids so they can breathe. Of course the kids want to keep picking them up and letting them crawl all over their hands but I'm not letting them (only allowed it in one instance for picture taking purposes) because I'm not sure what impact it will have on their metamorphosis. The kids are observing and diarizing the growth, the eating, and waking habits (do they sleep?) of the caterpillars each day. I'm so excited that they will be able to see the metam...

We made these beautify butterflies out of flower wire, beads and jewels this morning for our art activity. Ain't they purty? I can't wait until we get our larvae and kit from Boreal! It's going to be busy feeding 30 little caterpillars everyday but the experience of watching the metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly will be worth the effort. We need to ensure that our butterfly garden is planted by the time the Painted Ladies need to be released so that they will have a beautiful home to stay in. The sunshine finally broke through the clouds and is giving us a gloriously beautiful day! The kids are outside having a waterfight, ( I'm sure it is the first of many to come!) and I'm going to grab some chocolate and a book and go soak up some rays! Oh yeah!