They're BA-ACK!

I am so behind on the blog that I don't really know where to begin. So I'll start with something easy (ie: doesn't involving hooking up the camera)...Butterflies. Butterfly #2 got off without a hitch as far as we can tell. We've been basically ignoring the remains of the butterfly garden, but yesterday I happened to get up close to the parsley and I found MORE caterpillars. Hmm. I'm getting why farmers consider these guys less of a cool science experiment and more of a catastrophic agricultural pest. Well we don't have cash crops to worry about, so we're still pretty amazed by the coolness of this process. Jackson is still disappointed that the Monarchs passed up his sweet garden. We'll plant some milkweed next year.

The kids are good. I have a gazillion pictures to get loaded, stories too. It seems like everything that comes out of their mouths is worthy of publishing on the blog--we're not sure where they come up with some of it.

We are getting ready for our big trip to LA/San Diego. We leave Friday and are excited to be taking J & A's cousin, Ainsley with us. The kids haven't seen their Uncle John in a long time, so it will be fun to spend time with him. John, remember how you are going to babysit while David and I go out?!

So that's all for now. Pictures soon, I promise.

Operation Butterfly: RIP

We arrived home from the weekend at the lake and ran to the backyard to check on our caterpillar/chrysalis/butterflies. All that remained of the first chrysalis was a brown shell...we missed it! The butterfly had emerged over the weekend and we missed it. Then I looked down. Lying on the grass was a dead Black Swallowtail Butterfly he was all mangled and looked like the emerging process wasn't easy on him. At least we know for sure what kind of butterflies they are now. We still have one chrysalis on the side of the pool that we are eagerly watching, maybe this one will have a better ending. Jackson looked at the dead one today and said: "now he's the ants." Yes, I suppose so.

Operation Caterpillar: Chrysalis Time

Now we wait.

Operation Caterpillar: Or This

Or maybe Black Swallowtails?...

Operation Caterpillar: Update

Thanks to Grandma Patti (who found the above image) we now know the caterpillars that are now devouring our parsley will at some point morph into Blue Swallowtail Butterflies. In fact when I went outside to count the catepillars I had one of these butterflies fluttering around my head:
The catepillars are slowly disappearing (we started with about 12 and now are down to 5) with no cocoons to be found. Maybe the birds are finding them now, or they are off to their secret metamorphos-ing spot. I don't know, but it all is very amazing to me.

Operation Caterpillar: A Success

Back in April Jackson helped me plant a butterfly garden in the backyard. We've all been waiting so patiently for the caterpillars to arrive. This weekend we spotted these guys on the dill:

Looks like Operation Butterfly is right around the corner. I'll keep you posted.