Monday, August 9, 2010

Black Swallowtail Butterfly

Our oldest caterpillar showed signs that it would be coming out yesterday. The main sign is that the beautiful greenish colour goes a murky black colour. We took it with us everywhere we went so that we wouldn't miss it. 

Looking up close we could see more and more details through the chrysalis. 


We went out and while we were out we took the jar with us. We even brought it into Harveys when we ate lunch. Good thing we did because as soon as we got all settled and started to take our first bites it started to emerge.  I took video and was way too excited, so it's good that my hubby decided to edit it and add music. The kids liked to watch how he edited it on the computer. I'm glad you don't have to hear my shrieking, excited noises as we watch it come out. LOL! It was way to hard to contain the excitement. We've had many caterpillars but never actually saw the butterfly come out of it's chrysalis before. It's a good thing we didn't obey the signs as we entered Harveys that says "No Pets Allowed".

The kids took out the chrysalis for closer observation after we got home and learned that there was a liquid inside it. We identified the butterfly as a female. I'll take a picture of our butterfly tomorrow as we let it go outside so you can see the beautiful markings on it that helped us identify that it as a female.

Book Sharing Monday - The Usborne Art Treasury

The Usborne Art Treasury is a wonderful book for us. The write-ups about the artists are short enough that I can keep the interest of the kids. The projects are fun and easy.

Austyn wanted to do a bird craft, but I was unable to find one that he wanted to do from our library of craft books. So I adapted a lesson from this book to go along with his bird theme. We learned about an artist who made mobiles in modern times and he created his own mobile with birds.

Here is his finished mobile hanging on his ceiling lamp.