Look At Our Sweet Girl!!!

Just received these photos yesterday! They were taken on Wednesday, 7/21 and Shanna is opening the package that we sent with my friend, Erika, who is in China now, adopting her daughter from the same orphanage!!! Shanna is wearing the dress we sent her in the first care package (the one that took forever to get there) and in the second photo she is wearing her new shirt and glasses and she is looking at the photo book; a picture of Matthew with a big fish!! Gosh, her smile just warms my heart. Cannot WAIT to hug her. She looks pretty happy about the gifts and everything looks like it fits her great.

This week we got the girls new mattresses and headboards delivered. The beds fill up the room, and it looks very comfortable and inviting. Megan LOVES climbing up into her big girl bed.

George Emerges

My, oh my! Chrysalides!

According to my internet search, and Matthew's review of the dictionary, the plural of chrysalis is chrysalides or chrysalises. Boy, do we have chrysalides and chrysalises!

These little guys are amazing. They are on a mission, munching away until their biological clock says "time to shed your skin". Then they wriggle and jiggle our of their "pajamas" and underneath there is a new skin.  They do this several times over 3-4 days, to accommodate their growing bellies (due to endless consumption of the milkweed). When Eric is alone in the kitchen in the morning he says the chewing sounds are loud.
Crunch, crunch, crunch.

Finally, they crawl to the top of the cage (or stay on a leaf) and they make a little silk hanger from their bottom end, hang upside in a J shape. They become more and more inert, ending in a final shedding stage with a surprise green skin underneath, which is the Chrysalis. There are a few videos of this miraculous process, taken by Mary Alice.

We have done this before, but only with one or two caterpillars, never with 50+, so it has been a very interesting experience. With one or two, the stages are not so obvious, and with busy lives, running around, we would miss some of the timing. But with 50+, there has been a continuous observation period and the kids have been able to interact with them in a very personal and intimate way.

George, the first caterpillar, is ahead of the pack by about a week. He is just about ready to come out of his chrysalis, within the next day or so, so his chrysalis is much darker than the others. It's very cool.

This is the habitat, when it was fully stocked. The white trays are to catch the poops and they poop a lot. The kids have been in charge of clean up and in the height of the process it needed to be done about 5x a day. Now that they have entered the chrysalis stage, it has slowed down. Only 3 caterpillars are left in the habitat.

This is a caterpillar shedding it's first skin. Underneath it is a bright yellow, but his stripes appear soon after he sheds.

This is a top view of a grown caterpillar looking to make his J

This is a caterpillar hanging in his J shape

These miraculous videos are of the caterpillar shedding the skin to the chrysalis underneath. Watch how they wriggle their bodies out of the skin, like taking off a shirt.

Make sure you watch to the end to see the "hula hoop" moves they do to get the "pajamas" to fall off. It's incredible. Mary Alice took all the video.

These are all the Chrysali and a few still in J shapes. It looks like something out of a Sci-Fi movie, like the Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

And this is George. You can see how far ahead he is.

Stay tuned for the hatching of the chrysalides!

The Caterpillars are Growing Up

Well, now we have lots more caterpillars. More and More and MORE caterpillars. All 60 something eggs have hatched and we have caterpillars ranging from teeny, tiny to gigantic! They are all happily munching away on their milkweed plants, which now must be changed at least once a day. They eat A LOT.

This is the Caterpillar Condo. Picture 6 plants with about 12 caterpillars per plant..... lots of poop.....

This is a picture of an eaten plant (center). They just devour every bit.

The one on the left is a newly replaced plant, but by tomorrow, it will be gone, too.

Transferring the caterpillars to the new plants is not an easy job.

It takes teamwork, patience and a steady hand.

Plus, supportive coaching from the bench.

George, the oldest caterpillar,

hatched a full week before the rest.

We don't know why he is an over achiever.....

He shed his cute pajamas (his skin)

  

and turned into a chrysalis. In another week or so, we will have many more of these.

This is hysterical. Watch George.

It's quite a summer science project!

Stay tuned for butterflies.

Shanna Joins the Mural

When we were waiting for Megan, in early 2008, we hired Diana, a local artist, to decorate the room. I told her I wanted Chinese characters on the wall and a mural of my three children and she worked her magic.

This was the result; which I absolutely loved.

Diana came back, today (2 1/2 years later) and added in Shanna
(and made Megan's hair longer).

Once, again... magic. She fits right in.

This is the view from where the girls will lay in bed.

Every morning and every night they will see family.

Here is Megan's Chinese name: Min Bao Ling

And Shanna's Chinese name: Shan An Shuang

Every step a step closer....

Foster Care for Caterpillars

We always have something going on. Now, what started in Mary Alice bringing in one tiny caterpillar egg on a Milkweed leaf, has grown into something of a manufacturing process of monarch caterpillars. George, and all of his tiny cousins, 61 of them in all--- yes, I said 61!!! are happily engaged in various stages of metamorphosis in on our dining room table. Matthew collected them all from the milkweed in our yard. Above is a picture of the project. Each leaf has between 1-8 tiny little eggs on it. Below gives you an idea of how tiny an egg is.....

This guy just hatched.

These photos were taken by Eric and Matthew through a special microscope/camera/computer program.

Aren't they amazing??

This is an egg getting ready to hatch.

Almost there. This happens in a matter of minutes.

Eating its way out of the eggshell.

Coming out, head first.

Turning around, eating the eggshell.

Starting to eat the leaves.

Relative size of  George, after a few days.

The habitat that Eric, Matthew and Mary Alice designed and built for the caterpillars to live in while they are eating and growing. All they eat are milkweed leaves, so they have to have fresh every few days.

So far, only George is in the habitat. The others are too small yet, or not hatched.

After they are done eating and have grown much bigger, they will climb to the top and hang in their chrysalis, for two weeks and then come out as beautiful butterflies!!

What fun!

The above Photo from The Butterfly Site

All others are ours.

Megan's 6th Birthday

The Birthday Girl!

Playing a new game from Gramma Judy.

Guess what I am... you have to guess what you're card is by asking yes/no questions.

Triple chocolate cake, with chocolate frosting, and mint chocolate cookies on top. 

Megans' request, mmmmmm