Monarch Eggs

The monarch came back last Sunday and laid more eggs. Out of desperation, I emailed our wonderful metropark system to see if anyone there had any resources that might be able to help me save some of the caterpillars if they managed to hatch. Someone there got in touch with someone else who got in touch with someone else...and that person connected me to a group of people that are also monarch enthusiasts. Several of them have milkweed, and we were able to make arrangements to distribute the caterpillars among the folks who could feed them if they did indeed hatch.

Guess what we found today?! Danielle and I found 22 teeny tiny, newly hatched monarch caterpillars! And there are at least 10 eggs that haven't hatched yet. We brought the caterpillars inside to protect them from the fluctuating temperatures. I have enough milkweed to feed them until they're a little bigger, so my plan is to see who survives and grows and then "rehome" them. Seems like a lot of work for a caterpillar, doesn't it? Maybe it is, but I think it's important to do what we can to save them.

Softball Update

We only have 6 school ball games left. This has been much more fun than we thought it would be, and we'll miss it when it's over. Here are some pictures from this past month.

An Early Visitor

I had a monarch butterfly visit my milkweed Thursday afternoon! The monarchs don't usually make it to our area until late June, so it was quite a surprise. I think our mild winter enabled her to overwinter here. She was very pale and desperate to lay eggs. They are usually careful to spread out the eggs among the plants. This one deposited several together in multiple spots and even on the dead stalks from last year's cut milkweed plants. She laid at least 2 dozen eggs. I wish we could save them. Even if they survived the fluctuating temperatures we're sure to have at this point in the spring, the milkweed is too small to feed even one caterpillar to chrysalis stage. We didn't have any eggs at all last year and only saw a couple monarchs all summer. I hope this is a better year for them.

April Showers...

Track Update

Danielle ran in her 2nd track meet last week. She did well. She came in 4th in the 100m dash. Her 4x100m relay team came in 2nd, and her 4x200m relay team came in 1st. Our girls team placed 1st overall. Danielle did a great job and improved her overall time in the 100m.

It's better to run against people who are as fast/faster than you because it pushes you to run faster. She was a little disappointed the girls in her heat were so slow.

She was 1st in her heat by a lot.

Getting ready to start the 4x100 relay.

She had a pretty good lead on the others in the 4x200 relay.

She had her 3rd meet tonight, and she did even better. She managed to improve her time in the 100m dash from her first meet by a full second, which is a lot! She came in 2nd overall. There is one girl from our school that keeps beating her, but the gap was much smaller tonight! Her 4x100 relay team came in 2nd again, and her 4x200 relay team came in 1st again. She did a great job!

She got to pick her own heat tonight, so she picked to race against the girl who keeps beating her and the one who is usually a hundredth of a second behind her. It was a good strategy.



Danielle passed her. It was pretty awesome. The girl wasn't expecting it and did a doubletake.

Our Annual Egg Hunt

This was our 11th year having an egg hunt at Mamaw & Papaw's house. Circumstances were a little different this year, making it kind of a bittersweet event. My aunt, who took great joy in handing out the gifts as the kids redeemed the numbers in their eggs, passed away 2 weeks ago. My stepmom was downsized from her job of 44 years and worked her last day this past week. Patty also found out this past week that she has colon cancer. So, there were a lot of significant events that preceded our Easter celebration this year. But, we were all able to be together. My newly married stepbrother got to introduce his kids to the fun of hunting Easter eggs. His son's giggles while we played games were infectious. I know my dad and Patty have a lot of uncertainty as they look ahead. We don't know what next Easter will bring. But, as Patty keeps telling us all, God has a plan. So, we did our best to enjoy this Easter together and to add to the wonderful memories we have of so many happy Easters and egg hunts and meals around the table together.