Butterfly life cycle

We've had a lot of caterpillars lately (Mom counted 73) so I thought I would make a post about the butterfly life cycle.

This is the life cycle of a butterfly.

                                                                                                First, a male and a female butterfly mate.               

After mating the female butterfly lays eggs.             

                                    The yellow dot in the middle of the picture is the butterfly egg.                  

                                             
                                              A tiny caterpillar hatches from each egg.  

                                This very tiny caterpillar that has just molted left behind its old skin.

                                               This is a video of a caterpillar eating.( This video is best viewed in full screen)
                                                     


                                                   After eating a caterpillar ready is to make its chrysalis.

                                                      This is a video of a caterpillar making its final molt.

                   

                                               
                  In this picture there are two caterpillars ready to make they're chrysalis(two steps  ago) and one     that has already made its chrysalis. Can you find it?                                                                                                                                                                                                    

                                                                           
                                    After a couple of weeks the Gulf Frittilary comes out of its chrysalis.

                                                    Empty Gulf Frittilary chrysalis on the fence.

                                     This butterfly is almost ready to start the life cycle over again

                             

 Last week, did a little backtracking and focused on trees for the last day of April- the month of Arbor Day.  We have included trees in our patience unit because it takes a long time to reap the rewards of planting a tree.  After a leaf collection exercise, we transformed them into creative collages:

Cole's fox

Evan's crab (with sand)

Mom's girl

Let him run wild

his imagination, that is. . .
Now I wonder if YOU have that Beach Boys song in your head like I do. . . let him run wild, he don't care, let him run, let him run wild,  he'll find out, let him run . . . . You're welcome.

It's true about this being the age of pretend play.  In a single week, Xavier. . .

was inspired by his new sunglasses to become a
 downhill skier
by adding cardboard skis and PVC poles.

There has been a lot of restaurant play around here lately.
He's quite the chef.  Last night, he fixed me a special birthday dinner-
complete with YeeHa's and the
 King's Mighty Special Make You Strong Dessert.

I don't quite remember how it got started, but Captain Xavier
ordered proper naval clothes (WHITE!).  Luckily, I was able to
 comply.  Here he is about to climb aboard his ship (complete
with porthole and nautical flags).

I had an assignment to write a poem about patience because our poem book didn't have one.     

Be sure to find the: cookies in the oven, the watermelon clock and the football clock. 

Can you also find: the computer program loading and a kid waiting for his dad to get home.

Picture Success

We had a bit of drawing practice the other day, and Evan drew this bat, ball, and glove,  with motion effects, no less.  During his next game, he caught a fly ball for an out while he was playing at pitcher.  Perhaps all that business about "see yourself accomplishing your goals" works for him!

Last Day at San Marcos Gym Flips

At the San Marcos gym last Monday, Cole had a game so he couldn't stay for the second hour. All semester, Grayson has been our coach. I didn't know what event I wanted to do. Mom suggested that I do flips. And that's what I did. First, I started with back handsprings. Then, Grayson asked me if I wanted to do front flips. And I said, "Yes." We set up a springboard in front of a big mat. And I ran onto the springboard and that's how I did my front flips. At first, I could not land my front flips in a stick. Grayson said if I landed it and held a stick he would give me a dollar! I flipped and flipped and flipped some more until finally I landed one. Then on my last front flip, I landed it again. This is a video of me doing a front flip, but I didn't land it. It may sort of look like it, but I did not. Mom's camera battery was low, so she didn't record the ones that I landed. I landed one so Grayson gave me a dollar! He said it was like a trophy.

Evan flips out

All about birds

Heron at Goose Island
State Park in February 2010

The boys had a ton of fun yesterday afternoon checking out the live streaming bird-nesting cameras posted by the researchers at Cornell University. There is a Red Hawk nest.  They have probably finished laying their clutch. The Blue Heron has laid one egg at least and will probably lay more in the next few days.  They are really beautiful to watch so closely.  You can access the cameras by going to www.allaboutbirds.org. Look for the links at the top left of the page (but under the large banner).