Today was a very busy day. Although, I regret not getting out of bed sooner, because I might have had a bit more time to breathe before all the busyness of the day set in.
The morning started with me telling the boys we were going to have breakfast burritos for breakfast. They love the tortilla wrapped eggs and cheese and couldn't wait to eat them outside in their new playhouse. So, as I started the burritos, I glanced over at our caterpillar chrysalis, and to my surprise saw a butterfly! Oh man... we missed it!
I called the boys in to come and look and had them watch to see if the other would be coming out soon. Breakfast was almost finished cooking when Ethan shouted "MOM! Here comes the other one!"
With camera in hand to catch some good shots, we watched as the 2nd butterfly emerged from the chrysalis. It was fun, but really not in the plans for my day... but we made it work. I really would have liked to get a video of it coming out, but that will have to wait for another day.
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Notice the crumpled wings... they hold fluid in their abdomen and pump it
into their wings. |
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| See how large the abdomen is. |
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| The butterfly on the right had emerged earlier than the one on the left. |
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| Do you see the proboscis on the butterfly? It is the straw-like thing they drink with. |
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| Notice the wings are getting longer and less crumpled as the veins fill with fluid. |
So, they took their breakfast burritos outside to eat and I went back inside to pick up the house a bit before our LIFE Academy friends arrived for a butterfly playdate.
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| I picked this playhouse up at a garage sale a few days ago. They love it! |
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| They can even eat inside if they want. |
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| This house has a phone, a fireplace with a trap door to crawl out of, a sink and even a door bell. |
Our friends arrived and the kids played for a while in the basement while the moms visited. We had planned to read a few butterfly books and then do an activity about the life cycles of the butterfly. I had some foam clay in the closet so we got that out and started reading books. We had 7 older kids and 3 younger, so we divided the groups into 3. The book we had was about the migration of the Monarch butterfly and made me want to go to Mexico in the fall to see the monarchs arrive. It would be an amazing sight!
After the books, the kids sat down to work on creating life cycles out of the clay. The little kids played nicely and everyone had a great time. I was very impressed with some of the creations, and thought that Ethan's was really great; we can even use it for reference for future butterfly lessons.
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Ethan loves to make crafts and create things... here he is adding the finishing
touches to his butterfly. |
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| The kids had a great time playing. Emery found a hat. |
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| All done! |
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Ethan's finished life cycle clay creation.
Starting from the left and going counter clockwise: leaf with eggs, caterpillar, chrysalis, butterfly |
After all was put away, we headed upstairs to have a snack and let the butterflies go. It was getting close to lunch, so we decided to let the kids play outside after snack and then we would all eat together for lunch. It is so nice to have flexible schedules and be able to roll with whatever schedule comes your way! The kids really enjoyed eating together and so did I!
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You can tell the difference between a butterfly and a moth because a butterfly
will rest with it's wings closed. A moth will have open wings when resting. |
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| This one didn't hang around for long... |
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| Bye-Bye Butterfly! |
Shortly after lunch all our friends went home to start naps and get back to their daily schedule, and I packed up the boys for a trip to Mulch Mart to pick out some playground mulch for the backyard playset. They had a certified playground mulch that all of the schools and parks use, so I wanted to make sure that was what I wanted before Derrick brought it home.
While there, Everett was wide-eyed over all the machines digging and transporting the mulch around the property. He was in awe of the large bobcat that filled our order and didn't want to leave when we were done. He really loves watching tractors and large machines work; he is such a typical boy!
Although things didn't go according to my specific plan, it was a busy but great day!
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