Talent show video

It sounds like my video works.  This is Parker's first talent show appearance. She and her friends did all the choreography themselves and set up practices, conned one of the moms into taking them shopping for outfits, got their permission slips signed, etc etc.  They performed it for the K-2nd graders yesterday.  Pretty cute I think.

Chrysalises

  Follower

Leader.   

The black dots are "frass", a way to say caterpillar poop that doesn't make 2nd grader giggle. 

New temporary pets

In second grade at Parker's school, they do a long project where they learn the life cycle of caterpillars and butterflies.  They get caterpillars and watch them turn into butterflies, they collect milkweed and hatch (?) some monarch caterpillars which then turn into butterflies, they visit a butterfly festival, and they sell milkweed seeds in decorated biodegradable pots to raise money for Save the Monarchs or somesuch.  

In my garden I bought and planted some dill....I don't really use dill but I read that it keeps the cucumbers company.  Parker found a couple caterpillars chowing down on my dill plants and captured them.  I'm not sure how a caterpillar/butterfly finds a tiny dill plant in the overplanted jungle that is my garden, but they did.  

 These are terrible pets in that they will only eat fresh organic herbs, but they are great pets because they eventually leave home.  Hopefully in grand fashion after they've become a Swallowtail butterfly.

There are 2 of them. One day, one of them basically doubled in size.  Parker named him Leader, and the smaller one Follower.  We've all enjoyed watching them mill around and chow on herbs.  One morning Parker was looking and looking and looking and finally said: "I can only find one."  That was sort of worrisome to think he might be loose in the house somewhere, possibly hiding in my shoe. I looked and looked too, and finally found the missing guy at the very top wedged between the lid and the side.  Bob later reported the one of them had been unusually active that morning, circling the top, circling the bottom.   Apparently he was looking for a spot to start his chrysalis.  ~NOT~ a cocoon, those are for moths I've learned.

Parker inspected him and realized it was the small guy, "IT'S FOLLOWER!"  We were all surprised...my money was on Leader to be the first to change.    Here's how he looked for about a day.  The next day his outer skin molted off - Parker showed me this by saying "see that thing down there that looks like his head fell off?  It didn't really, that's just molted skin.".  Luckily she told me that before breakfast or there might have been more than molted caterpillar skin on the floor.  

 

 Now he looks sort of like a leaf.  Leader made his chrysalis too, but his was lower down and it's green.  It will be interesting to see if they are a different type of butterfly, or if Leader somehow made his  chrysalis green for camouflage reasons.  I'll try to get some pics that taken and posted.

Outtage

I'm trying to get some pictures posted.  Bear with me, this time of year is totally insane!
Here's Parker's recent lost tooth.  It hung on for days and days and days and finally one morning it was hanging out and wouldn't go back, Parker was crying because it hurt no matter what she did.  So we both got our nerve up and she let me yank on it.  I was prepared to use all my might....we were running late, there was no time for tooth drama!  It came out so easily that she didn't even feel it!  She gave me such a look of "you are so useless" because she thought my fingers slipped.  The new tooth is already peaking through.

I made the headband she's wearing too.