Welcome Poopa!

The caterpillars have now entered the pupal stage. Danielle keeps getting the term "pupa" incorrect, though, and it comes out more like "poopa". (Chrysalis doesn't come out quite right either.) I guess the oozing amber colored liquid I saw last night didn't have much to do with the chrysalis, although I don't really know what it was.

The transformation is really interesting. I was watching a caterpillar last night when its abdomen started to contract. It was making very slight movements, but something was happening. When I looked again an hour later, half the caterpillar was covered in the chrysalis. As near as I can tell, they kind of swell up and the chrysalis starts forming at the head and moves up toward the bottom, which is secured to the lid of the container. I think their heads pop off - kind of like molting - because something black and fuzzy (that looks a lot like their heads) is either hanging on part of the chrysalids or is on the bottom of the cup underneath them. Of course, I could be totally wrong, too. I can't catch any of them in the process.

As we were watching the chrysalids tonight, we saw one twitch a couple times. Apparently this is a natural instinct designed to keep predators away. Some types of insects actually make a clicking noise while in their chrysalis. This really was for the kids, but I think I'm enjoying it just as much. There is one caterpillar that hasn't completely changed yet. They will be in the pupal stage 7-10 days before emerging as butterflies. The completed chrysalids are golden in color so far and are kind of pretty. I guess they get darker as they get older. And I'm sure that's more than you wanted to know!

In other news, the kids started swim lessons today. I have wanted to enroll the kids in lessons for a couple years, but I just never got around to it. Today we finally started. The kids were nervous at first but ended up really enjoying themselves. They aren't in the same class but their classes are at the same time. They have lessons all this week. We also signed up for lessons next week, too. (Danielle goes to church with the 2 girls on her right.)

This afternoon the kids painted butterflies for a game for Danielle's birthday party. We also made butterfly hair clips, which Danielle is modeling. (Thanks, Mom R.) She's agreed to allow me to position it a little better for her party. She's so excited. No pressure.

Caterpillar Update

This will probably be the last day I can give a caterpillar update because the caterpillars are beginning their metamorphosis. The information that came with the caterpillars said they would be in the larva stage for 7-10 days. Today is day 10, so I guess we're right on schedule. Two of the five are on the top of the cup but aren't hanging down yet. The other three are already hanging upside down, and one of them has started oozing an amber colored substance which I assume will eventually be the chrysalis. It actually is very interesting.


As a point of reference, here's how big they were when we received them a week ago Thursday:

Here are pictures from earlier this week:

Thursday

Friday

You can see all the silk in the cup. It is a sign the caterpillars are healthy. They use it to protect themselves, and they sometimes slept in it (like a hammock).

Saturday

Today (Sunday)

I asked Danielle if she wanted to share anything about her caterpillars that I could post. Turns out she had a lot to say. Tyler had to add his 2 cents, too. She wasn't done when I stopped the video the first time, so there are 2 videos.

Funny Follow-Up

In light of the post I made the other day referring to lying to your children, I thought this incident was rather funny:

Ron and the kids were in the crawl space in the basement this afternoon. Ron was working on installing a fan in the ductwork to increase the air flow to Tyler's room. The kids were "helping". I overheard Ron say, "Don't throw the rocks or the house is going to fall down." (The crawl space is filled with rocks, which are covered by plastic...in most places.) The kids must have stopped because it got quiet for a minute. Then Tyler said, "Will the house really fall down, Dad?" Ron replied, "Would I lie to you?" There was another pause. Then both kids burst into laughter and said "Yes!" at the same time.

Another Caterpillar Update

Danielle's birthday caterpillars are getting HUGE! They're also kind of gross. Their little cup-home is getting rather messy. The commercials on tv don't show you that part. It really is a pretty neat experience, though. All 5 seem to be thriving.

Today the kids decided the caterpillars needed names. Danielle named 4 of them and let Tyler name one. They decided on Carl, Johnny, Rose, Rosebud, & Emily. Tyler's pretty sure he can tell which one is Carl. :)

Speaking of birthdays, Danielle is a Barbie nut and has already asked for more for her birthday. I'm embarrassed to say how many she has, so I'll just say we're not buying her any more. But, if any of you were considering buying her a Barbie, I'd like to discourage you from getting her this one:

Here is the article about it. I don't know why but I found this pretty funny. (It's actually rather pathetic.) I don't think she's exactly Danielle's taste, though.

Caterpillar Update & Untruths

I'm happy to report that so far all of Danielle's caterpillars are still alive and are growing very quickly. It's almost as amazing as the tv commercial promised. This picture is from yesterday. They're even bigger today.

I saw this article on MSNBC today about lying to your children. I had a hard time around Christmas dealing with the whole Santa thing because I was afraid our kids would feel like they couldn't trust us if they found out we lied about something so important to them at this stage of their lives. But, the day after Christmas I put that out of my mind for another 11 months. I didn't think the article really said much, but it reminded me of Santa about 4 months too early. Fortunately Tyler hasn't asked about the Tooth Fairy yet.

In general I think we're pretty honest with our kids. I know we try to be. After I read the article I tried to think of times we tell our kids something that's untrue (it's hard to admit to lying). I thought of two examples, but I'm sure there are others. When Ron picks up dinner for us on the way home from work sometimes, he will occasionally get the order wrong or forget something. In order to cover for him and avoid a complete meltdown, we usually just tell the kids the restaurant was out of it that day. It defers their frustration to the non-present restaurant and we are able to move on with the rest of our dinner. I guess it comes down to trying to make our lives a little easier, just for a moment. (I simply do not have the energy to handle the whining and fit throwing all the time.) The other example is when Danielle does her own hair. She will brush just the front (because she can't reach all of the back) and then stick a headband on. Most of the time her hair is all over the place and, quite honestly, it looks pretty bad. Then she proudly asks me if her hair looks nice. How could I say anything but yes?

I feel kind of bad admiting to these things and putting them in writing. Lying (or not lying) seems so black and white, but it's not always. I'm sure my mom wasn't always truthful with me. How could you really be totally, completely honest with your kids every day all day long?? It would have been helpful to me if Jesus had been a married father to a four and six year old. I wonder how He would have dealt with dinner time meltdowns and hideous hairdos after spending a hard day healing leppers and multiplying loaves of bread.

A Fun Filled Summer Day

We had a busy but fun day today. We started by meeting Mamaw, Aunt Nikki, Beth, & Sebby at a chocolate factory for a tour this morning. The tour was actually very interesting - more so than the ice cream factory tour we took last month. We weren't allowed to take pictures in the working part of the factory, but it was very interesting because we could actually see them making the chocolates. (We did not see any Oompa Loompas, though.) The tour started with an explanation of how we get chocolate from the cacao tree and the process the cocoa bean goes through to become the chocolate we eat, and ended with free chocolate buckeyes for everyone.

Of course, Mamaw insisted on buying more candy for everyone afterward. She didn't have enough change with her to buy this 235 lb buckeye for $3500, though.

It really was a good experience.

After the factory tour we went to a park for a picnic and to let the kids ride bikes for awhile. It was hot and the kids got bored, though, so we went to the spray park instead.

The kids had a lot of fun playing in the water. It was a fun afternoon and I expect everyone will sleep very well tonight, including me.

Danielle doesn't have to worry so much about Wormy & Willa for now. She's having her first non-family birthday party this year and has decided she wants a butterfly party. Because of the party and because she has asked for this many times, we bought one of those butterfly kits from the internet. When we got home this afternoon, the box containing the caterpillars was sitting on our front porch, roasting in the sun. So far no one has suffered heat stroke, but the container did get a little condensation on it from being in the heat and then in the air conditioning. The instructions said to avoid condensation because it could kill the caterpillars, so we'll see what happens. If all goes as planned, the caterpillars will emerge as butterflies a couple days before her party and we will release them that day. If you click on the picture, you can see a couple of the tiny caterpillars near the top of the container.

The County Fair

Today the kids and I went to the county fair. We had a really good time! The kids really enjoyed all the animals. This was the closest they'd ever been to a turkey (me, too, actually). They also liked the ducks in the swimming pool, the floppy eared rabbits (which we got to pet), and the cows (but not so much the cow-pies). We also saw horses, donkeys, goats, sheep, chickens, and guinea pigs. I had no idea you could show guinea pigs at a fair.

They each rode a spinny, make-you-puke ride and then jumped in the bounce house. They also got to play 2 games. A cameraman from a local news channel taped Tyler playing the balloon dart game. Apparently he caught Danielle at the fish pond, too. She appeared for a split second on the 6pm news tonight. Maybe Tyler will be on at 11. They also rode the ponies, but the guy was grumpy and wouldn't let me take their pictures. Before leaving we indulged in bags of cotton candy, which the kids enjoyed on the way home. We had a great day!

Tonight Danielle decided she wanted to keep some worms for pets, so she convinced Tyler to help her look for some. She found two very, very small worms, which she named Wormy and Willa.

July 4th Fun

We had a very nice time celebrating the holiday with Ron's parents! Here are some pictures from the past couple days.

Glow stick fun while waiting for fireworks (on the 3rd)

The star shirts

Sequence of illegal activity

Fun with bubbles

Check out Danielle's nose (lucky shot!)

Sparkler fun (Danielle was afraid of them this year)

A Bouncy Day

Today we went to a place that has giant inflatables to climb on. (I thought of Caleb.) They typically host birthday parties, but a couple days a week they have an open gym and anyone (who pays) can come play. We took our friends' girls with us. It was our first time visiting and we had a really good time.

They had a giant slide, a long obstacle course, a big bounce house, a football pass thingy, and some little push cars and hula hoops. It was difficult to get decent pictures because the lighting was bad and the kids were quick, but here are a few from our day. (Those are giant boxing gloves on Tyler's hands. He couldn't really hold them up well enough to use them, which was probably a good thing!)

After we were done playing, we went to the park for a picnic. After we ate the kids had enough energy to play again for a little while. They were pretty wiped out by the time we got home. It was a lot of fun.

Unrelated but noteworthy (to me):

I can't believe how much progress Tyler is making in his reading - even though school is out. Tonight he read a level 3 book (longer paragraphs, chapters), Fluffy Meets the Dinosaurs. The Fluffy books are pretty funny. When we read them, I typically read the book to him and he will read the spots where Fluffy is thinking. Tonight he read the entire first 2 chapters and I read Fluffy's thoughts, then we switched for the last chapter because Fluffy did most of the talking in chapter 3. And it was the first time he'd picked up the book! I did have to help him with words like "ancestor" and "extinct" but he was able to figure out most of the words himself. He also entertained the girls in the car today by reading The Foot Book and There's a Wocket in my Pocket. I think the latter is pretty impressive considering all the made up words!

A Little More This & That

First, here are the finished star shirts. I think they turned out great! The kids are super excited about them. When I first explained the project to Tyler, he told me it was "stupid", but he thinks it looks really "cool" now.

Danielle felt left out when Tyler painted a flower pot for his teacher a few weeks ago, so I bought some extras for her to decorate for some of my plants. She finally got started on one last week and finished it up today. She makes beautiful pictures with lots of colors when she's unprompted, yet when given the chance to decorate a flower pot for me to display, this is what she came up with:

She called it "a box of darkness". Apparently it was night time for the flower. I had to beg & plead to get her to add some color to the guys above the "box of darkness". When she finished the pot up today, I hid the black paint pen.

After working on "homework" this afternoon, we made a special treat for dessert. We dipped bananas in chocolate and then stuck them in the freezer until after dinner. They were very good!