The Caterpillars

I decided to catch up on some blogging while Jon watches very important soccer game.  I had written "soccer match" first, because he usually corrects me when I call them a game, but then he told me that this is a game because it is in the US.  I just can't keep up.

But, on to more exciting things.

Meet our new friends, The Caterpillars.

These four caterpillars joined our class on Thursday so we could experience their life cycle.  We ordered them from a butterfly release company in Winter Park, and they came with these huge milkweed plants.  They came two to a plant, with a little net bag around them so they would not get lost.  Since we only have a few weeks left of school, we ordered caterpillars that were very close to the chrysalis stage.  These guys were huge.

One of the caterpillars inside the net.

Beautiful!

This is the first time I have done this, but I was advised by my more experienced colleagues to take them home with me over the weekend in a little butterfly net (provided by our science curriculum) in order to make sure they have enough food and to clean out their poop (these guys can really poop).  So I brought them all home with me, as well as one of the milkweed plants, to make sure they survived the weekend.

However, as soon I brought them home they began the process of becoming a chrysalis.  Three of them were already hanging upside down and starting to curl up when we got home from dinner at Jon's parents house last night.

They were still the same when we woke up this morning (early, to do our third day of 5K training!).  When we got home and I got out of the shower, one of them had already become a chrysalis.  After I dried my hair, another had.  The third was complete when we got home from helping Sarah and Justin move today.

The last one just started tonight, and he is now hanging upside.

I am so bummed that I missed watching the other three become a chrysalis.  It happens within minutes.  Hopefully I won't miss this one, but if my guess is right, it will happen while I am asleep.  What is even more disappointing is that the kids are missing this.  All of the excitement is happening while they are in my living room.  Oh well.  You can't control science!

We took some time on Thursday to brainstorm and vote on names.  The winners were Jake, Michael Jackson, Melody and Justin Bieber.  Not necessarily what I would have picked, but I went with it.  All we could think about on Thursday and Friday was the caterpillars, so at all times I would overheard strange things like "Michael Jackson is crawling!" or "Justin Bieber is eating a leaf!"  Those kids make me laugh.