They Hatched!

We've had butterflies for nearly a week now. Last Thursday before school there was no sign of change and later that day when I came home from school, this is what I saw.



Just like that they were all out. One chrysalis was still there but looked very different. I kept watching it but when the butterfly escaped while I picked the kids up from school. Apparently the butterflies like their privacy.



We have five Painted Lady butterflies.

It's hard to get a picture of them with their wings open.


This one was taken through the net.

Carley refuses to release them. She's hoping that they will lay eggs and start the cycle again. I have doubts.

But we did have mating butterflies.



So maybe.

Growing Butterflies

For Christmas, Carley received a butterfly kit from a friend of mine. And as the weather got warmer, we ordered the butterfly larvae.

The caterpillars took less than a week to arrive. They came in a "larval culture cup" that had food at the bottom of the cup.


4/9/10

For the first week, the caterpillars just moved around the cup and ate their food. As they entered the pupal stage, the caterpillars crawled to the top of the cup and hung upside down.



One evening they looked like this....

4/11/10

And the next morning, a couple looked like this...

4/15/10

Once they all harden into crysalids we were able to open the cup, pull out the paper liner than they clung to and move them into the butterfly habitat.


4/16/10

We're still watching and waiting for the first butterfly to break free.

San Francisco or Bust

This year, since Josh was turning the big 1-0, I asked him "if you could do anything for a birthday party what would you choose?" It wasn't that I planned on giving him a big extravagant party but I want to see what his birthday dreams were.

"Go to San Francisco" was his response. And my knee-jerk reaction was "Oh no, I'm not taking a bunch of boys to San Francisco."

After thinking about it for a day the trip seemed feasible.

So we made it happen.

After Josh, Carley, myself and Susan (my friend and the mom of Josh's friend) there would be three seats remaining in the car. He picked his three closest friends to come - in fact the same three friends that came to his party last year - and we all went to San Francisco last weekend in celebration of Josh's birthday.

To be specific, we went to the Exploratorium. And explored we did. For five hours.















The Exploratorium is located in San Francisco's Palace of Fine Arts, which is one of my favorite places. We took a walk around the pond after being inside and before heading home.





While waiting for some city traffic to clear, Josh asked if we could go over the Golden Gate Bridge, which was in view. He'd never been over it before. So why not?

We stopped on the other side for a view of the bridge and city.





It was a long drive home after a long day so we stopped at Red Robin for some dinner. The serving staff sang Josh "Happy Birthday" in their quirky way and gave him a free sundae.

We got home much later than planned but still had birthday ice cream cake and presents. The friends slept over.



I hope it was a memorable birthday for Josh. I know I'll remember this one forever. We all had a great time.

Spring Break Company

Last week was Spring Break for our entire family. None of us had school!

My nephew, Owen, also had the same Spring Break that we did so my sister, Alex, traveled down from Washington with her two son's for a three night visit.

It was great to have them here. The kids had so much fun playing together.


Octavian (1), Carley (6), Owen (7) and Josh (days from 10).

One day we took the kids to Folsom Zoo, an animal sanctuary for non-releasable animals.

Because it is a sanctuary zoo, the animals are not animals you'd find at mainstream zoos. That's one of my favorite things about it.








After the zoo, we bundled up for a picnic lunch at a playground until cold winds picked up causing us to quickly pack up and run for the car.

While at home, we did things like make Flubber (aka Gak).





It's just a chemical reaction between white glue and Borax mixed with water.

We dyed Easter eggs.




And I made another trick food as a April Fool's day joke for the fourth year in a row.



This year was spaghetti. Actually it was a sort of yummy dessert: pound cake, butter cream frosting, strawberry topping and chopped almonds.

One memorable moment was when Octavian lifted his hands at the dinner table. Walt started copying him so Alex and I joined in. Octavian continued raising and lowering his hands and we continued copying him for at least 15 minutes.

"YAY!"


Alex asked me to take one-year-old pictures of Octavian (his birthday was in March) and we finally made it happen the last day they were here.

These are two of my favorites...

What a handsome guy.


I love his wild hair! And I especially love his smirk.

Thank you Owen, Octavian and especially Alex for coming to visit. We loved having you here!

And Now He Is Ten

Today is Josh's birthday.

It seems just yesterday he was born. Our oldest. Our boy.






















Today. Now he's 10!

Already.