New Pet **** Added a new link

Yesterday, we woke up to a Frigid 60 degrees (no that wasn't a misprint) - way too cold for Isabella to go outside, or so I was told. But she HAD to go outside to see her new pet so this is what she decided to wear:
Ignore the fact that the coat is a size 18-24 months, the gloves are mine, what matters is that she has shoes on to keep her feet warm. :) She is a true southern girl with her flip flops on. :) And this is her new pet:Her name is Dara. I'm not sure where Isabella got the name, spelled out it looks a little like Dora, maybe this was for her sister. But considering she named her fish Rexy-Keeko and has a stuffed penguin named Carlotta, there's really no telling. She's already agreed to name the baby boy that God is going to give us. Uh-oh. Saturday, we went for a bike ride at the park and stopped at Wal Mart on the way home. I was in the garden area looking at the herb plants and noticed these caterpillars on the parsley. The worker kindly told us we could have one (unconcerned that they were eating the plants) and Isabella was SO excited. She has spent so much time just sitting and watching this thing. Currently, she/he is starting to pupate. I'm thinking we will have a Chrysalis by morning. And since I am no insect expert, praise God for the internet. We've learned all kinds of things about this particular caterpillar and the butterfly she will turn into. What a fun science lesson. In case you were wondering, its a black swallowtail, she has bright orange "horns" that come out of her head when she is disturbed and emits some stinky odor (saw them, didn't smell it thankfully.) Isabella said that was a mean thing to do, so we got to talk about how it tries to protect itself.... she still says its mean. :) It stays a caterpillar for about 2 weeks, attaches itself to a tree (fake tree in this case) and spins its cocoon (didn't know that all caterpillars don't do this, some use leaves around them first and then spin the cocoon around that), then after around 2 weeks it becomes a pretty butterfly!! I'll post more pictures of it because I'm sure we will be taking them and making up some little scrapbook for Isabella.


Oh and just because she asked me to, here's a picture of Amelia with her best friend, Teddy. She obviously can withstand the freezing cold weather, much better.
**Here's a site at least for my friend Becky -- her kids will enjoy this. Once you get to the site under the title of the page, click on "Click here to see morphing of caterpillar to butterfly" http://www.pbase.com/rcm1840/lifecycleofblsw-- Yikes!!! Isabella might have nightmares about that if she sees it. :) Seems to have some other good information for the kids to see. I haven't looked at every page though, so I'm not endorsing it and I'm not responsible if your kids have nightmares about molting their skin or about enzymes that will digest their innards and turn them into soup (yeah, it says that.)