While we were gone...

Our caterpillar made a chrysalis.

We left our caterpillar with Daddy while we went camping with Aunt J. He noticed that the caterpillar stopped eating and then was hanging from the bottom of the cover to the peanut butter jar butterfly habitat. By the time we got home, the butterfly was in a chrysalis. Three days from the time the kids brought it home. We would have liked a few more days to watch, but we are still looking forward to the next stage!

There isn't much to watch right now, but the chrysalis is quite pretty!

There is caterpillar poop in my van

Because we got a new pet!


Grandma L. had monarch butterfly caterpillars on her milkweed this summer. The kids went with Daddy to visit on Saturday and came home with one. Kiddo held a large stalk of milkweed for the entire 30 minute drive, carefully watching the caterpillar to make sure it didn't fall.

I wish I could say I was more prepared, that we had the perfect butterfly habitat ready to go. We didn't. Daddy took a recently emptied peanut butter jar (thank goodness it had run through the dishwasher already!) and quickly drilled some holes in the top. That became our new pet's home. I have been letting the milkweed grow in our landscaping, partly because I love the blossoms and partly to attract butterflies, so we have a ready supply of food for our little friend. I am as excited as the kids to watch the process unfold! We never did this when I was a kid, we only ever caught woolly bear caterpillars. They would go into cocoons, but never come out. Let's hope we are more successful with this one!

We have already noted that he is a prolific pooper. And that he eats constantly (hence the pooping in equal amounts). It wasn't until we were watching him, and saw the pooping, however, that Kiddo mentioned that he had done that in the van. And that it had fallen to the floor. And that he had no idea where it had gone. Sigh. Guess I need to vacuum...