Caterpillar to Butterflies

After years of wanting to do it, we finally got a kit to watch caterpillars grow into butterflies. When I first presented the idea, Asher and Leif weren't very excited, but the other three kids were. Once we got the caterpillars, Asher and Leif did spend quite a bit of time watching them, but their younger siblings were even more interested.They were Painted Lady butterflies, so they looked a bit like Monarchs.

It took them about 10 days to turn into chrysalises, then they stayed that way for about another 10 days, but it was very exciting once they emerged as butterflies.

We kept them for a few days and fed them, then released them. Natalie was so thrilled when the first two butterflies flew away that she chased them across the yard squealing. We watched them for a few minutes, then lost track of them. We hope they are out there pollinating and laying eggs for more butterflies.

 

Zoo Day

We took a field trip to the zoo during our last week of school. We found a day that was pretty cool and we went early in the morning, but the animals still weren't as active as when we went in February. We visited a few places that we don't usually go in the zoo and we had a fun day.

After a short wait, we were able to see one of the elephants crossing the bridge into a different part of his enclosure.

The otters were much less exciting than when we visited on Valentine's day. They mostly just snuggled together in a big pile- very cute but not as fun as when they swim all over.

The zoo has a new Australian exhibit. The wallabies were fun because we got to walk into their enclosure, and there was a tree kangaroo, and some type of small emu-sort of bird, but no other Australian animals. Hopefully they get some more soon.

Natalie was fascinated by the albino wallaby, especially since it hopped right past her.

I didn't even realize the zoo had an exhibit where people could walk in and feed lorikeets (related to parakeets). We didn't pay to feed them, but the kids enjoyed watching them.

We don't usually do any rides at the zoo, but since this will probably be our last visit for awhile (our membership is expiring soon) I figured I'd let them have fun on the train and the carousel.

On our way out, we stopped by the elephants one more time and just happened to see the end of the elephant show (we've seen it about 4 times already) and decided to see what the otters were up to . . .

 

Which was not much

 

Soccer

Soccer is officially over for the season, but I thought I would post a few of the pictures we got over the last few months.

Austin and I coached Trevor's team while Asher and Leif practiced with their team at the same time. Natalie and Heidi stayed busy practicing soccer themselves or playing with other little sisters who were there.  

I got quite a few photos of Asher and Leif's games, but I didn't get any of Trevor's games because I was too busy coaching when I was there. I also missed a couple of his games because I had to take the older boys to their game at another park while Austin coached Trevor's game.

 

 

 And some bonus pictures of Natalie doing her ballet at home- she just does it whenever she feels like it because she watches YouTube videos of an instructor showing her what to do. Its much cheaper than having her in real ballet classes and she loves it.

Carter Lake

We visited Carter Lake for the first time last October just because I was hoping to get some good pictures of the kids for Christmas card photos (it didn't work out because of the light) but the kids begged me to bring them back when it was warm enough to swim, so I promised them we would go in  May before other kids were out of school, but the weather was warming up. Our time was somewhat limited because we had make-up soccer games we had to be to in the late afternoon, but we got about three hours there and everyone had a blast! The kids and the dog jumped in the water right away, but eventually got hungry and settled down for a picnic. Luckily, we were the only ones there for the first couple hours so Torben got to run free. He was very upset when I finally had to put him on a leash and whined or barked at the kids unless I walked him around and let him be part of what they were doing.

Once they weren't starving, they were right back to playing in the sand and the water with their dog zipping back and forth all over the beach from one kid to another.

Asher was fascinated with the rocks and kept trying to break them so he could investigate them more.