Signs of Spring

One day while we were out playing in the yard we noticed that Caleb's "Butterfly Weed" plant had some caterpillars on it.  Upon closer look there were at least FOURTEEN caterpillars on it!  The plant really was aptly named!

When we mentioned to Grandma Jan that we were watching to see what the caterpillars would do, she suggested we bring one to watch.  What a great science experiment idea!

The caterpillar cleaned all the leaves and flowers off of the plant we put in and then did something very interesting...it formed a type of "web" across the top of the jar so that when it made its crysalis it could hang!  How interesting!!

Here's Caleb looking at the beautiful crysalis with tiny gold-looking spots on it.  Almost as if it had jewels!

Within a couple days of noticing the caterpillars they had stripped the plant clean.  There were no more flowers or leaves at all.  Then all the caterpillars disappeared and Caleb and Momma wondered where they had made their crysalis' since they weren't on the plant or even the bushes next to the plant.  How far will a caterpillar crawl????  Well, Mike found them hanging on the side of the house!!

Mike managed to get a picture of the butterfly coming out!  Amazing to watch!

Great picture!

We noticed our crysalis getting dark grayish black and thought it would soon hatch so we kept an eye on it.  Unfortunately, the butterfly was too fast for us!  We looked at it after breakfast, we went to feed Ethan and play a game for an hour and in that time the butterfly was already out!

Here we are trying to release it!

Poor butterfly was too big for our jar!  It kept scooting back into the jar as its wings touched the mouth of the jar.  Mike had to finally just gently shake it out!  What an awesome life cycle to watch!

Also in a tree in our yard we discovered a nest.  How did we discover this??  Well, while hunting for Easter eggs in the yard Caleb found half of a REAL eggshell!  Mike found the nest and if you look carefully you can see it in this picture.  Though we couldn't actually see the babies at all!  We'll have to keep our eyes out for them.