Raising Painted Ladies

This past month we have been raising butterflies as part of life science at King's Dominion Academy.  We received our newly hatched caterpillars in the mail on March 13.  They came complete with all the necessary food in the bottom of the container, so our job was easy--watch and wait. Here's Day 1:

They started out so small!

They grew very quickly, and while they grew, we learned as much about butterflies as we could.  We checked out stacks of books from the library, printed out worksheets online, and made lots of butterfly crafts. Here's a sampling of what she made:

AR & J painted wooden butterfly magnets

We put together this wooden butterfly, and then painted it to look like a Painted Lady butterfly.

stained-glass butterfly made by melting crayon shavings between two sheets of wax paper with a warm iron

It was so much fun!  I learned so much I had never know before, and we were both amazed at God's handiwork in these small creatures.  Some things we learned:
Anatomy of a butterfly (including scientific names like proboscis, thorax, compound eyes, spiracles, etc.)
Life cycle of a butterfly
Monarch caterpillars and butterflies are poisonous because of the milkweed plant they eat, and animals know not to eat them because of their bright colors and markings.
Painted Lady butterflies (the ones we have) mimic this coloring as a protective measure.
Many butterflies have false eyespots to confuse predators.
Some butterflies migrate thousands of miles.
Butterfly eggs are the size of a pinhead.
You can tell apart a male from a female monarch butterfly by looking for a black scent spot on the bottom of their wings.
Butterflies emit a special smell to attract mates.
The caterpillars shed their skin up to 4 times before their final transformation.
They need a body temperature of 85 degrees in order to fly.  They warm themselves up by shivering or basking in the sun.
Painted Lady caterpillars love to eat thistle, a common weed.
Butterflies taste with their feet.
They suck nectar from flowers by unrolling their tongue and using it like a straw.
When a Painted Lady butterfly emerges from it's chrysalis, there is a byproduct of metamorphosis that looks like blood called meconium.  (We were glad we learned this one, or else we would have been worried when we saw they red marks all over the cage.)

Here they are getting bigger:

















And bigger...

About 10 days after we received the caterpillars, the first caterpillar began making a chrysalis, and the others followed suit shortly after.  It's funny to see them hanging from the top of the container looking like a letter "J" before they shed their final layer of skin, which hardens into the chrysalis.  After they all were settled in, we transferred them from the small plastic container to the netted butterfly keeper.

waiting while the mystery transformation happens inside!

On the evening of April 4, we noticed at dinner that there was a butterfly on the side of the cage!  We were so excited, but were all a little disappointed that we missed seeing it emerge from it's chrysalis.  But we had fun looking at it with our magnifying glasses, and we even took it out and held it for a bit after it's wings had dried.  Anna Ruth named the butterfly Beautiful, hoping it was a girl.

Josiah is learning to be a scientist

I held it first to show the kids that it was safe!

It tickles me!

Beautiful

We actually never witnessed an emergence; it seemed like it happened so quickly!  But I did catch one right out of the chrysalis, with it's wings still crumpled up and wet.

See the wings all crumpled up?!

Once they were all butterflies, we put orange and banana slices in the cage, as well as some homemade nectar in a container with a paper towel wick for them to suck it out.  It was fun to watch them drink.  They really seemed to like the fresh fruit more than the nectar.

enjoying a banana slice

With Painted Ladies, you can't tell the males from the females, so you never know what you have, but Anna Ruth decided that we had a couple boys in there in addition to Beautiful, so she and James named the big, obnoxious one Dino.  We also had a butterfly with a large eyespot on the bottom on his wings, so she named him Eyespot.  Another one did not have antennae, had a wierd looking eye, and something wrong with his front left leg, so AR named him Poor Fellow.  About a week ago, we noticed that we had did indeed have some of each, because we got to see them mating!

the lovebirds

Now, we have teeny tiny little greenish eggs on the leaves and the bottom of the cage.  We'll see if we can have another go-around and witness the miraculous life cycle of the butterfly once again!

A Knight with His Princess

Our homeschool support group had a sweet event this past weekend--the Daddy/Daughter Dance.  It was a great opportunity for Rich and Anna Ruth to have some time together.  I found a beautiful dress for her at Ross for a great price, and she was so excited to wear it and see Rich's reaction.  I also made her a pearl bracelet to go with it, and she wore the pearl necklace that Daddy gave her for her 5th birthday.  She chose her own hairdo from a website that we use called Babes in Hairland.  If you'd like to try it, click here.

She's getting so grown up!

Love those dark eyelashes--she has natural God-given mascara!

Rich and his princess

view of the hairdo

close up

I also made 100 decorated cookies as favors for the girls at the dance.  It turned out to quite a bit more work and time than I anticipated, but I was glad that they turned out so well, and that the girls enjoyed them.

Josiah had a huge fit seeing all these cookies on the table and being told he could not have one!

I found some decorating ideas online, and it was fun to try them out

I loved using the little pearl decorations

Anna Ruth and Lily Anna

Anna Ruth loves to match hair-dos with her doll, Lily Anna.
Here they are right before going to our first American Girl Club.  

side view of the fun braids

Ketchup Post

No, actually, this post is not about ketchup. 

BUT I do need to catch up on the happenings of the Hamlin household, so here goes.  As I've mentioned before, I knew this kind of post would be necessary from time to time since I am busy with all that's going on and blogging is not exactly my first priority.

The next event on the list after James' birthday is Thanksgiving.  It was our year to spend Thanksgiving with Rich's side of the family, which makes it nice since we get to stay put--traveling with kids is something we try to avoid if possible!  Anyway, all of Rich's siblings except for Shannon were able to come to town, and it was especially good to see Ben and Judith since we knew they would soon be leaving for Germany.  Anna Ruth absolutely LOVED Adia Sulwen, and has now named several of her dolls after her little cousin. 

Anna Ruth holding Adia Sulwen

We all participated in the Turkey Day Run, which was a lot of fun.  Rich ran it, I walked it with the kiddos in the stroller, and Anna Ruth and James also did a kid's fun run after the race.  They each ran with their respective age groups and genders, but they both needed a parent to run alongside them (and in Anna Ruth's case, I had to practically drag her because she was scared to do it on her own).  They both got a t-shirt and a medal, and we hope that they next time, they will both do a bit better. 

After the race, we went back to Rich's parents' house to hang out, make food, and play a little 4-square.  We enjoyed a wonderful meal of ham, sweet potatoes, crockpot mac 'n' cheese, corn pudding, spinach salad, and pumpkin and apple pie for dessert.  Wish we would have gotten a picture of the food--it was amazing.  We always feel more justified in pigging out on Thanksgiving dinner after exercising in the morning.  :)

Anna Ruth's 5th birthday quickly followed Thanksgiving, and this was the first year we had an actual party for her where we invited some of her little friends over to celebrate with her.  She was so excited to have a princess-themed party!  We asked each of the girls to come dressed up as a princess, and the activities were as follows:  decorating princess-themed sugar cookies, decorating purple jewelry boxes with gems, giving make-overs, and playing dress-up.  A while back I had seen a castle cake online, and decided I would give it a try for Anna Ruth's birthday.  I made it purple, since that is her favorite color and added the princess figurines at her request.  I stayed up very late the night before the party making it, but it was worth the look on her face in the morning when she saw it.  She got lots of girly presents including a princess comforter for her bed, a Rapunzel dress-up outfit, a ballet nightgown with a matching nightgown for her doll, and a special gift from Daddy--a real pearl necklace and bracelet set.  We can't believe how fast our little girl has grown up! 

front of the castle cake

back of the castle cake

Anna Ruth showing off her new pearls from Daddy

our little princess on her 5th birthday

Anna Ruth wearing the new nightgown with her matching doll sitting on the new princess comforter

A few days after Anna Ruth's birthday, she performed in her ballet Christmas prgram.  Her little class danced to "Away in a Manger", and it was adorable!  She was scared at the beginning, but she pulled herself together and did a great job.  (As a funny sidenote, whenever James hears the song "Away in a Manger", he starts twirling, with his hands above his head, just like Anna Ruth does in her dance.)

a big smile before the program

Anna Ruth striking a pose

Christmas was spent with my side of the family this year, and my 3 sisters were all able to be here along with my parents and my grandmother (my Dad's mom).  It was pretty chaotic with 8 kids in the house (my oldest sister Sarah's 6 and our 2), but the adults had just as much fun as the kids.  We enjoyed many wonderful meals, played games, had a comedy night, sang Christmas carols, went out thrift store shopping and out to lunch, and opened TONS of gifts on Christmas!  Again, I wish I had gotten more pictures, but everything seemed to happen so fast and stay so busy, that I rarely thought about getting out my camera.  We also celebrated Sarah's 30th birthday and Milienne's 11th birthday, which are both on December 29th.  Overall, it was a blast, and we are looking forward to the next time we will all be together.  

the living room full of presents!



(from left to right) Sarah, Jessica, Mom, Olivia (me), Lisa
We are wearing the matching pajamas Sarah got us.

Just in case you didn't see our family picture we sent out this year in our Christmas newsletter, here it is:

One of Rich's Christmas gifts to me this year was a real pearl necklace, that I absolutely love!  I wore it to a wedding, and Rich wanted to get a picture of me with it on.

Other than holiday festivities, we've also been keeping busy attending lots of oyster roasts associated with Rich's work, going to lots of doctor's appointments, getting back into the routine of Anna Ruth's school one day a week, going to the library, etc.  I've also started working on some smocking projects that I would like to get done before this little boy shows up in early March.  I have plans to smock 3 dresses for Anna Ruth and one outfit for the new baby.  On Monday I started on the first dress and have made some good progress on it.  I will post more pictures as I get each one finished.  

This is a spring dress for Anna Ruth that will have pink and purple tulips on it.

Thanks for reading, and I will try to do better, so that I don't have to have such long ketchup posts in the future! ;)

Little Girls Tea Club

Anna Ruth recently received this invitation:

She is so excited about her new tea club!  She loves to dress up, and she got to pick out a special tea cup and saucer that I had been given from my grandmother to take with her.  Her tea cup was the most admired one there.  The girls learned about good manners (sitting the correct way in your chair, saying "Yes, please" or "No, thank you" when asked if you would like something, keeping elbows off the table, chewing with your mouth closed, putting your napkin in your lap, asking nicely for something to be passed to you, etc.), and they listened to a story about a girl who has a tea party and learns some Christian character qualities.  After the eating and drinking, they played dress up.  Anna Ruth had such a great time, she keeps asking me when the next tea club will be.  A month is a long time to wait when you're 4! 


Look at all that cute and pretty food!




Anna Ruth enjoying her strawberry cream cheese sandwich




All the pretty little girls