Going a little buggy these days

So almost everyone knows we are not exactly the biggest animal lovers in the world. We actually take quite a bit of heat from our fellow fur-loving friends and family members about not having pets. But we are still good people. And in fact, we do have pets. We have many, actually, they are just on a rotating system and are maybe not as cuddly as most traditional pets. Recently Kaelyn was filling out a get-to-know-you survey at school and was asked about her pets. She happily answered, "two cocoons."

In the past few months we've had a praying mantis, dragonfly,many snails, roly polys, ants, caterpillars, butterflies, toads, lady bugs, tadpoles, slugs, crawdads. Each lovingly fed, observed and let go, (except those that die of course). We've discovered our kids are exceptionally bonded to the insect kingdom, and wanted to share some of our recent little friends.

Jaren is proudly displaying his pet snail "Lightning Mcqueen". He did not realize how funny that name was for a snail but we got a good laugh !

Here is Kenna and her pet roly poly, "Flower". She loves for it to walk all over her and tickle her arms. She likes to say, "hey little buddy, you're so cute!"

Kaelyn received a very cool butterfly-raising kit for her birthday in March. We sent away for some caterpillars and just like in school classrooms, they come in a little cup with caterpillar food. When they turn to a chrysalis, you transfer them to this cool mesh butterfly habitat and you can keep them in there. We have had a LOT of fun with this and all the kids have been involved. We had 2 butterflies in the habitat and Kaelyn noticed they were mating. So she wanted to see if we could raise " the second generation"(those were her words). Sure enough, with a little help from the internet, she found out what kind of plants they need to lay eggs, and we set it up.

Here is one of the 2 butterflies, which were oh-so-cleverly named Butter and Fly. Kaelyn fed them sliced oranges and various blossoms.

See all the tiny blue dots? Butterfly eggs-- up to 500 of them! Apparently they will only lay eggs on a plant that will nourish their babies when they are born. So we had to find some hollyhock.

If you look closely you can see a tiny black bug on the middle of the leaf. That is the first detected caterpillar of the second generation. They are about the size of an ant. The kids watched them emerge from their little blue eggs. It was amazing--and quite a science lab around here! Kaelyn is taking orders at school to see who wants caterpillars to "raise". Maybe we have a future as a Caterpillar Farm?