Comments on: In Which We Are Very Pleased

By: Yvonne

Yvonne — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 14:58:00 +0000

Those are so gorgeous! Can’t wait to see the butterflies.

By: beth

beth — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 18:54:00 +0000

Great job on the pants! They really look cute on miss Sophie.

By: Nicole

Nicole — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 16:07:00 +0000

Wow! The pants look amazing.

By: Lyssa

Lyssa — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 15:20:00 +0000

those pants are great! and sophie looks just SO happy in them. great job. GREAT!!!

and the caterpillars!? i wish that we had some similar thing at a state fair, but i’ve never seen anything like them, to purchase.

By: Sue J

Sue J — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 21:01:00 +0000

next spring you need to plant some fennel in a corner of your yard, up against a fence or wall.
The Spice Swallowtails like it and lay their eggs…….then you get all these caterpillars crawling all over it..it’s really exciting to see them go from tiny to big.
The girls would LOVE it!
I’m moving soon, and can’t wait to get to my new place so I can plant a butterfly garden!

By: Dianne

Dianne — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 20:14:00 +0000

Love the pants! Sophie looks like she is certainly enjoying them, too!

By: SwissKnits!

SwissKnits! — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 14:04:00 +0000

The kids brought home caterpillars last year from camp. It was the greatest thing. The best was that they were able to let the Monarch walk on their hands for quite a while before the butterflies took off forever. We were careful not to touch the wings. Oh, and what thrilled the kids the most? My DD had the girl butterfly and my DS had the boy butterfly. Even DH got into the whole thing. It’s a wonderful family activity!! Enjoy!!

BTW males have two dots on their hind wings, females do not.

By: Stacy

Stacy — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 13:31:00 +0000

Those toddler pants are just too fun – I love the look on her face in the second modeling shot.

By: knitbysue

knitbysue — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 12:13:00 +0000

Cute cute FO (and cute model of course). They look warm enough to get through a MN winter for sure.
Both my kids raised a monarch larva to an adult butterfly. It’s a mandatory 7th grade science project in the Rochester Public Schools ( Minnesota’s Rochester).
When the caterpillar stops eating and starts hanging in a ‘J’ shape it’s getting ready to form the chysalis. We put our camcoder on a tripod and started continually filming when this happened and did manage to catch this transformation. The video was facinating.
Then a day or two before the adult monarch emerges the milky-green chrysalis will turn clear and you will be able to see the squashed up monarch wings inside it.
Again, at this point we started filming until the adult emerged, unfolded and dried off. It made for another cool video. My son’s science teacher was thrilled to get these two videos and showed them to all her science classes. Most of the 7th graders were sleeping or at school when their larvae transformed. It’s really easy to miss.
I’m not sure if you got instructions with yours or not but it helps the monarch to have a few sticks or window screen propped up very near its chrysalis so when it emerges it has something to climb to, hold on with its feet and let its wings unfold. They like to hang vertically to do this.

By: Mary Lou

Mary Lou — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 12:07:00 +0000

cute cute – and aren’t Monarch chrysalis (plural?) the most beautiful thing? I don’t know what the gold is for, but they are like jewels and I am amazed every time I find one. I may have to go to the fair and buy myself one. I have plenty of milkweed!