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

Happenings...

Just wanted to get something on here to update about what's been going on...

Anna Ruth:

Anna Ruth's hair is in a headband braid

She is getting so tall and grown-up.  Everyone keeps saying it wherever we go.  I can't believe she's going to be seven years old in December.

She is a voracious reader, and is already reading American girl books and other small chapter books.  Because of the AG books, she has gotten into dolls, and we have joined an American Girl club with our homeschooling support group.  It meets once a month (with a different doll theme each time), and the girls bring their dolls, they learn about the time period from the stories, do a craft, and have snacks.  This month the doll is Molly, whose story is set during World War II.  She has read 3 of the Molly books, watched the Molly movie, and has gotten a doll to bring to the club.  It is not an AG doll, since they are so expensive, but it is the same size and style of them.  Hers has blonde hair, blue eyes, and is named Lily Anna.
I love doing her hair, and she usually has good ideas of how she wants it done.  Now that she has a doll, she usually requests for me to make her doll's hair match hers.
Anna Ruth likes to put on music while she works on her handwriting in the morning.  Lately, she does not want to choose "kid music", so she has been looking through my CD case and putting on Indelible Grace music.  It takes me back to RUF days!  She's so funny about wanting to be like an adult now.

James:

James loves to fight off all the bad guys

He is a big fan of Anna Ruth, although he might not admit it.  He copies everything she says and does, and they actually play together pretty well, because he's willing to listen to her and do what she says.
He is quite the climber.
He was running around the train table the other day saying, "I'm a race car!"
James stood on the toybox and performed the Doxology for us.  It went like this: "Praise God from whom all blessings flow! (a step higher) "Praise God from whom all blessings flow!" (a step higher) "Praise God from whom all blessings flow!" (a step higher) "A-men!"
He is doing really well with school.  We are learning the sounds of the letters, and practicing writing the letters.  He is pretty close to being able to write his name.
He also has begun to draw stick figures; they even have details like eyes, noses, mouths, hair, and tummies.  And he stays in the lines on coloring pages if he wants to.
He is still into dinosaurs, and is requesting a T-Rex birthday party when he turns four, which is not far away--November 14th!

Josiah:

Josiah posing in his new Mexican shirt

This boy is into EVERYTHING!  I never had to put cabinet locks on for the other kids, but they've been oh-so-necessary for him.  He gets into drawers, plays in the toilets, grabs whatever may be slightly hanging off the side of the counter, rips up paper, finds pens and writes on walls and couches, etc.  You get the idea!
He is extremely active and likes to climb.  If I had a nickel for every time I got him down from some place he shouldn't be up on, I'd be a rich woman.
He is a pincher and biter.  Ouch!
He is a sweet boy, though, and is a little talker.  He jabbers on about all sorts of things, especially getting excited when Daddy gets home.  He runs to the door, shouting, "Dah!  Dah!"  Rich loves it!




Liv and Rich:
I am enjoying homeschooling this year.  I am re-learning things I had forgotten about history, singing songs about nouns that I still remember from the 1st grade, and even learning lots of new things!  It is so fun to have this time with my children.  It is hard, and there's not much down time, and I'm usually exhausted by the end of the day, but I really do feel fulfillment in doing what God has called me to do right now.
I am about to start Women's Bible Study next week, and we are reading a book called The Praying Life.  I think it is a timely study, from which I will profit much.
Rich has been reading a lot more lately.  After we started listening to The Chronicles of Narnia with the kids, he got excited about fiction again, and read ahead in those books as well as reading some fiction by G.K. Chesterton.
Rich is happy about at least one of his teams doing well this football season.  The Citadel is having a great start to their season, and we are going to our first football game as a family on Saturday.  He has been practicing the CI-TA-DEL...Goooooo BULLDOGS!!! cheer with the kids so that we can spur our team on to victory.

New Beginnings

Sometimes updating the blog helps me get back into the habit of writing more.  That's what I'm trying to do this time.  Do you like the new look and theme?  We'll see if I can be a bit more faithful in posting this time around.  There is much to write about, but very little time.  But I think it is important to write these things down so that I can remember them later.  So, here's to a new beginning with the blog.  The story of our life moves on, and hopefully, I can write it down.  I will post updates and pictures about the children--cute quotes, milestones, achievements, activities, etc.
Another new beginning is the school year!  On Monday, King's Dominion Academy (what we named our homeschool) will be starting it's second year.  Anna Ruth will be in 1st grade, and James will be in K-4.  I am excited to watch them learn so many new things, and I'm glad I can spend all this time with them.  I am having to make a pretty tight schedule for our day, but I think it's a good thing to be more purposeful with the way we use our time.  I may post about what we're doing and learning in school, and maybe some cool science experiments, too!
A third new beginning is our plan to get out of debt.  The only debt we have at the moment is Rich's student loan and the house, so we are trying to really attack the student loan debt in order to get that paid off in the next couple years.  I am having to be more careful with the budget and cut back on unnecessary expenses for a while, so I may post about good deals I find or thrifty projects and gifts I'm able to make.
I hope that you will check back often to keep up with our story, and please write a little something to encourage me to continue the updates.  You know I need it! ;)