Week 32 in Pictures

Last week consisted of the start of Keira's online photography class, PTO meetings at Panera (yum!), fun times at a local farm show, follow up visits with Alex's surgeon (at least the second one), a fun day spent at a local lake, finding a few more Monarch caterpillars to raise into butterflies, and a visit from Grammy.  In addition to some back-to-school shopping with the kids.  Yikes!  Who knew that picking out a new backpack would be such a big deal?!  :)  But we did really well and even came in under budget, which always makes Daddy happy.  Plus we even squeezed in a family fishing outing on Saturday when the weather was cool and breezy instead of scorching hot and humid like it had been.

This week we have less planned but that doesn't mean we won't still try to do some fun things.  Like nature walks and photo shoots and bike rides, just to name a few.  Just over two weeks until school starts.  Not that I'm counting down or anything.  :)  Let's just say some days are better than others.

Anyway, let's take a look at last week's photos ...

{Sunday}

Honey and I came home from a walk to find these deer in our neighbor's yard.

{Monday}

Fun at the Farm Show.

{Tuesday}

We went to a local park to cool off in the creek and look for crayfish.  The boys decided to be brave and walk through the tunnel.

{Wednesday}

While at the lake this dragonfly was nice enough to stay still and pose for me.

{Thursday}

I planted some gladiolus, liatris, and dahlia bulbs earlier this year.  The dahlias are finally starting to bloom.  (Kim Klassen's Zuzu & Trust textures used.)

{Friday}

The bees and butterflies LOVE the liatris flowers.

{Saturday}

We came home from the lake on Wednesday with three Monarch caterpillars - one big guy (this one) and two smaller ones.  I wanted to be sure and get a few photos of the caterpillars (instead of always focusing on the butterflies) so I put this guy on some milkweed and had a little shoot.  :)  As of this afternoon, he is in chrysalis.  Yay!

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Week 22 in Pictures

Another week done.  I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that it is June ... and the kids are almost done with school (Alex tomorrow, Keira and Nick on Wednesday).

I attended the 7th grade Awards Ceremony for Keira this morning at her school.  She was presented with an Academic High Honor Award, which means her GPA for the year is 4.2 or higher.  I'm so proud of her!

Last week I photographed some kids at our school's 6th grade dance.  It went really well.  I really enjoyed helping set up for the dance and spending time taking the kids' pictures.  I delivered them to the school today so the kids can take them home tomorrow.  I hope they are pleased with them!  And I'm hoping to be able to do that again.

My husband was away for most of last week.  Something we're not used to.  We're used to him working long hours but he always comes home at night.  Tuesday he left, returned Saturday night to get some clean clothes and some parts at his home plant, left again Sunday morning, and returned Monday.  He was only about 2 hours away, but he was still away.  Oh and he informed me today that he is officially off of shift work.  Yay!  Five years of rotating shifts has paid off.  He is now steady daylight with most weekends off!  I'm not sure we're going to know how to act with him home every evening, but I'm sure we'll get used to it pretty quickly.

Anyway, last week was pretty uninspiring for me as far as photography goes.  Most days I had to force myself to pick up my camera to photograph something.  But I did, and here's what I found ...

{Sunday}

An interesting looking flower I came across.  Or is it a weed?  :)

{Monday}

On Memorial Day we always go to our local parade.  We met up with a group of friends this year which made it more fun.  Nick decided to wear Alex's hat to show his patriotism.  And, of course, his Angry Birds shirt.  :)

{Tuesday}

Finally some much needed rain!

{Wednesday}

This was one of those days my camera didn't get touched until late in the day.  But the sun setting was a pretty sight that we got to witness while waiting for Keira to get finished up at Youth Group.

{Thursday}

Alex and I took a much-needed walk/bike ride on the bike trail this morning and look what we found!  We actually found five Monarch caterpillars, who are all now happily munching milkweed leaves on my kitchen counter.

{Friday}

More rain.

{Saturday}

All our babies in their different stages.  The three smallest we hatched from eggs, and the other five are the ones we found along the bike trail on Thursday.  We have them in different bug habitats according to their sizes.  The biggest one has now stopped eating and looks like he will be in J form soon.  I can't wait to have butterflies again!

On a very sad note, the baby gorilla that was born at the Pittsburgh Zoo back in February died over the weekend.

They had recently given him the name Kito.  Their facebook update stated that they don't know the cause yet, but I'm sure they will be looking into it.

My heart goes out to his mama, Moka.  She was such a good, caring mother to him.

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Scavenger Hunt Sunday 05.27.12

It's time for another scavenger hunt!  This week's items are Beneath your feet, Capturing movement, Texture, Face your fears, and Currently.  I'll be honest and tell you that I struggled with a couple of these, but that's part of the challenge, I guess.  :)

{beneath your feet}How cool would it be to have a blanket of bubbles beneath your feet.
{capturing movement}We bought a new bubble machine this week and have played with it a few times now.  I thought it would be neat to slow down my shutter speed and capture the bubbles coming out of the machine.  This is what I got.  I like it.
{texture}Okay, so I don't normally stalk around in a graveyard taking pictures, but Keira needed a photo of this Grand Army of the Republic star from the Civil War for history extra credit.  I thought the texture of the star and the tombstone were interesting.
{face your fears}Who wouldn't be scared staring down the barrel of a rifle?!  Well, in this case, it was a BB gun that Doug was teaching Keira and Nick to use, but still!  (For those of you concerned for my safety, the safety was on and no BB's were loaded in the gun.)
{currently}I had a couple different ideas for this prompt.  The books I'm reading ... the photos I'm editing ... the dining room I'm painting ... until this morning when I discovered that our eggs hatched and we now have three teeny, tiny Monarch caterpillars happily eating milkweed!  I'm so excited to be raising Monarchs again!
So that's it for me!  I need to get painting that dining room!  
Be sure to head over to Ashley's for more great Scavenger Hunt photos.  And if you'd like to play along for next week, look for these items ...

1. Shine
2. Fast
3. Left
4. Peace
5. Plain

Happy Memorial Day!  And have a great week!

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Monarchs - From Caterpillar to Butterfly

About 2 1/2 weeks ago, Nicholas came running in the house so excited because he had found a monarch caterpillar on some milkweed by our house.  Shortly after that, he found another one!  We were also pumped because we had raised monarch caterpillars 3 years ago and loved it.  So we were super excited about raising them again.


I've posted a few pictures to my Project 365 blog.  You can see them here, here, here, and here.  :)  In case you are interested.


We've found (and lost) several more caterpillars since that first one.  I think our current count is 16.  Sixteen!!!  How awesome is that?!


We've been eagerly anticipating the arrival of these beauties.  When we came home from the zoo last Monday (July 26), 3 caterpillars were in their chrysalides (had to look that one up :) .  The next day the 4th one formed his chrysalis.  Then on Thursday (July 29) we got to actually watch one forming his chrysalis.  It was cool to watch!


Finally today the long wait has paid off ... our first butterfly emerged!  And by the looks of things, we will have 3 more tomorrow or Saturday.


The one that emerged today was actually a bit of a surprise.  You see, I was out on our porch where the caterpillars are currently staying.  I was cleaning the poop out of one of the containers - the one that has 6 baby caterpillars in it right now.  (Yes, you have to clean the poop out of their containers to prevent disease.  No biggie.)


Anyway, while I was putting the leaves and caterpillars back into the jar, I saw something moving in my peripheral vision.  I looked down to see a butterfly walking along the porch.  He came out from under a dresser that is sitting on my porch (that is there because it needs to be donated but it can't yet, because it is holding the containers for the caterpillars and butterflies).  We can't find his empty chrysalis but we suspect he was hanging under the dresser.  There is a second chrysalis under there also, which must be one of the ones we thought we lost when the wind blew the container over.  The kids found it today.


I coaxed him to climb up on my fingers and knocked on the kitchen window so the kids could join in on my enthusiasm.  They came running out super excited!


I sat outside with the butterfly hanging off my fingers or a flower or a stick or sitting on my leg :) for several hours.  It was a good thing I didn't have any plans for this afternoon.   I let the kids each hold him so I could get pictures.  :)  I finally got tired of holding him and I had to make dinner, so I put him on a flower and went about my business.


Of course, I have photographed the whole amazing process.  I plan to make a photo book with the pictures.  Here are a few for your viewing pleasure ...

They start out as this ... a black, white, and yellow striped caterpillar.  

Well, actually they start out as eggs, but I don't have any of those.  :)

The caterpillars eat milkweed, poop, and sleep for about 2 weeks.  Once they have eaten their fill, they form a "J".  This is a sign that they are ready to form their chrysalis.

This is not a great picture through the container, but this is the caterpillar we caught "in the act" of forming his chrysalis.  See how he shed his skin (it is sticking on the side of him) and he is starting to form  his chrysalis.  You can still see his stripes at this point.  Cool, huh?

This is the caterpillar once he has completely formed his chrysalis.  This particular one is hanging from one of our camp chairs.  Apparently one of the "lost" caterpillars decided to stick around.  We leave our camp chairs folded up on the front porch during the summer since we use them so much.  We discovered this guy last Friday.  This chair has since stayed out under my maple tree.  I check on him every day but no movement yet.

This is one of the chrysalides today.  (I know, not a great picture!)  There are 3 that look like this right now.  Hoping they will emerge tomorrow or Saturday!

And here he is!  Our first Monarch butterfly!  (I don't actually know if these are males or females - it is just easier to refer to it as "he").

Isn't he gorgeous?!

The kids each wanted to hold him.

Nick cracks me up!

He seemed to like me the best.  :)

I never did get him to open his wings completely so I could get a picture.  He did open them a few times, but he closed them too quickly.  But with 15 more caterpillars, I'll have plenty of opportunities!

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