Metamorphosis

We got one of those cool butterfly kits for Christmas and finally got to order the larvae for it! Got the little buggers about 2wks ago...they grew SO fast and every one of them formed into a chrysalid now! Very exciting. One of them formed in less than 1hr- I swear to you! I checked them after putting E to bed one night and when J got home it had formed! Couldn't believe it! When we got them they measured less than 1/2". Fully grown they measured 2" before forming the chrysalids (also called a pupa). They sometimes doubled their size in a day! They also molt about 4 times throughout which explains the little black fuzzy things we'd see here and there and wondered if they were falling apart or what :D

We still have to take them out now and pin them to the mesh butterfly house now...should hopefully have 5 'Painted Lady' butterflies in less than a week. E's learned a lot from this process and so have I. She had a butterfly book and frog book that explained all this awhile back, as well as library books here and there, but it's so much more interesting seeing it all firsthand. She's kept a journal throughout as well.

Here's a few pics of the larger caterpillars and a few chrysalids. I'll take a few more when they become butterflies. We'll probably let a few go here and maybe a few at mom's. They supposedly stick around their release site for a few days so that'll be fun to see.

Valleyfair

We went to Valleyfair for E's bday this year. She has the opposite problem of many children...she 'is' tall enough for most all the rides but just isn't ready for a good portion of them. She ended up going on the high roller, and after braving that a few times decided she wanted to try the corkscrew. I thought the high roller was more exciting, but the corkscrew goes upside down you know! She loved it...we went on that quite a few times at the end.

All day long she was watching the Wild Thing and really wanted to go on it at the end but I had to put my foot down! Even though she loves the rides, the gets this horrified look on her face on the way down. I didn't want to see what she'd look like 1/2way up the Wild Thing :D

The day was just a bit cool for the water rides, but we did them anyway. Kept the crowds at a low roar for that area!

It was a great day. By the end of it, we decided to go out for a movie as the park closed at 8pm. E treated us from $ she'd won from a coloring contest awhile back. We saw 'Up'...it was quite cute, esp. the little short film beforehand. I loved that one!

Opening up her card that a.m. The last shot is her figuring out what the riddle meant :D




The obligatory 1st ride...this is tradition no matter the age!


A few rides- I know the car one is blurry but can you see her face?! :D











This is her coming off her 1st 'big' rollercoaster. She's hollering at me that we're going again- this time her and I :)


The corkscrew- her fav. ride of the day:




And of course, the wave. We did this shortly before lunch and got soaked of course. Went on a couple of times and to finish it off stood on that bridge. I thought E knew what was going to happen, but just as she realized last minute she got this look of horror and tried to hold on for dear life to the back of my leg to no avail :D


Twas a great time :D She's already talking about next year. Actually, she was talking about next year the same day :)

Birthday Pics

I'm behind on photos- Cassie can tell you why as she had to sit through my early 90's speed internet while I was trying to show her a few things. We gave up :P I migrate to the community room for blog postings :)

E loved her gifts and they shall get a lot of use! She and I made a target for the bow and arrow as I figured people in the hall would start to tire of the constand 'thwapp!' against the door :D

The Dino Show

It took me awhile to upload these, sorry for the poor quality- we forgot the camera and had to use our phones instead! The vids are obviously short but it shows you how the dinos move- so cool and so realistic! It was an awesome show. I've never seen anything like it! We had a great time...enjoy the pics!


Click on this link and you'll go to the album...if it's not clickable, paste it into your search bar:
http://s180.photobucket.com/albums/x196/jasar31629/Dino%20Show/