EUNICE THE UNICORN

Mommy has been learning to knit again. Thanks to our dear friend, Olga, I'm making progress. This is my first creation ... a cute little unicorn that I fashioned after ideas from Kristie at earthschooling.com. Boo Boo found Eunice early the next morning while visiting the butterfly garden. She loves her greatly and has carried her on every adventure of the week ...

RAINY DAY FUN

So, we usually don't mind the rain and it is a lot of fun to keep on swimming, or swinging or digging in the garden during the rain ... and refreshing. In fact, Boo Boo's favorite saying is "We're ducks. We don't mind the rain". But, when a stormy day sets in upon us (rather than the quick bursts of rumble and downpours we usually endure) ... well, what's a duck to do? Hmmm ...

Tea with homemade pita bread and homemade hummus ... yummy enough for a princess

Mend our broken and torn toys

Make a pouch for our block crayons ...

Make spinacoladas ... (a fancy way of saying spinach, pineapple, brazil nut milk and banana smoothie) Seriously, if you have never tried one ... they are YUM!

LORIKEETS

Today we spent the day at Butterfly World. Yes, the theme is butterflies for the summer ;-) What started out as a fun project has taken over the house. Boo Boo would go to Butterfly World every day if she could. Today, she was actually smitten by the Lorikeets. These adorable birds love people and climb all over you. Boo Boo had a chance to feed a couple their favorite snack: mango,papaya, pear juice. It looked like one of our yummy smoothies ;-)

LOTS OF BUTTERFLIES TODAY

Today was a wonderful day for butterflies. We had 8 butterflies in all emerge this morning. We had 1 Monarch, 1 Orange Barred Sulphur, 4 Gulf Fritillaries and 2 Black Swallowtails. Hope you enjoy some pics of the process in rearing each of these types.

WANNA BE FRIENDS?

ORANGE BARRED SULPHUR

Here are some pics of the process in rearing the Orange Barred Sulphur

GULF FRITILLARIES

With our first Gulf Fritillaries emerging today, I thought we would post a few pics of the. These are fast flying butterflies, so I was delighted to get a few pics with wings fully extended.

SPECIAL

One of our little Gulf Fritillaries emerged with under developed wings. We were assured by experts that she is fine, except she cannot fly. We are keeping her indoors and Boo Boo has named her "Special" because she is our special butterfly to pamper with yummy, fresh flowers every day, fruit and sugar water. She is the sweetest little butterfly and loves to crawl all over us. We took her outside in the sun and breeze today to play and now she is resting in her butterfly nursery with a yummy vase of jatropha.

FRIENDS AND SWIMMING

Boy, doesn't this look like a group of teenagers in the making. How many 2, 3 and 5 year olds just choose to go lay down on their towel and relax by the pool. We had to get a shot of Boo Boo and her friends when we saw this. Now, if they would only fall asleep and take a nap ;-)

OUR MONARCHS ARE HERE

We've been busy rearing our butterflies since we've returned from our trip to Georgia. The past few weeks have been very busy. We got a little out of hand with our little creatures. But, it was way too exciting to come home to so many caterpillars on our plants. We brought in quite a few Monarchs, Black Swallowtails, Zebra Longwings, Gulf Fritillaries, and Cloudless Sulphur. So, this past week has been a flurry of emerging Monarchs. We've released 10 over the past four days. One day we had sextuplets! Here is a cute pic with all 6 of her babies attached to Boo Boo.

WANNADO CITY

Boo Boo had so much fun at Wannado City. What an amazing place. I think it is probably best for six years and older, but we still spent 4 hours and had a blast. Here are some photos of Boo Boo's "jobs" at John Casablanca Modeling Agency, Publix, Ringling Brothers/Barnum and Baily Circus, a jewelry store and finally spending some of her "money" on riding the carousel. She made much more "money" than she spent there ... go figure ;-) Hmmm ... probably won't be the case when she gets a bit older.

BUTTERFLIES ARE COMING

After returning from our trip home to Georgia, we were greeted by many, many eggs and caterpillars on our plants. We are now hosting 5 different butterflies: our milkweed hosts Monarchs; our dill, parsley and fennel host Black Swallowtails; our Passionvine hosts Gulf Fritillaries; our Corky Passionvine hosts Zebra Longwings; and our Cassius hosts Cloudless Sulphurs. We have brought several of each type of eggs/caterpillars indoors for rearing ... so it is busy here around Boo Boo's Butterfly Land! We'll keep you posted with pictures as things progress.

BOO BOO DAREDEVIL

Well, this is one of those moments where I thought for sure Boo Boo would stick close to my side and not want to take a risk ... hmmm ... I was wrong. She took one look at the bungee/trampoline contraption at Callaway Gardens and she was ready to jump. With a thrilled look on her face she kept asking the attendent to send her "higher!" ... "higher!!". Look out Florida State University Flying High Circus ... little Boo Boo might be your next star somewhere around 2023!

WHITE PEACOCKS ARE HERE

THE BUTTERFLY GARDEN IS GROWING

Our garden is certainly attracting all types of butterflies now. We have many, many Monarchs fluttering about, Black Swallotails, Zebra Longwings, Buckeyes and now Gulf Fritillarys are laying eggs on our beautiful Passion Flower vine. We are just waiting for the Zebra Longwings to find it :-)

WESTON RAINFOREST

Okay, this is the tree where he lives and this is a picture after being awake ALL NIGHT listening to Mr. Tree Frog's beautiful, but LOUD songs. Being Waldorfy as I am, I love singing all throughout the house and garden. But, not at 2AM!!!!! Does anyone specialize in "Loving, Tree Frog Relocation Programs"?

The Rainy Season

The rainy season is upon us. For over 2 weeks it has rained ... POURED ... for a large portion of each day. There has been no need to water our butterfly garden because it is being well tended by Mother Nature and the Rain Fairies. Boo Boo knows very well now that if it is not raining we should get outside right away ;-) As soon as the sun pops out, our butterflies are flittering around the garden and over the pool. It has been great fun to watch them. We have two Black Swallowtail chrysalis left. Something seems amiss with them, but the chrysalis still looks healthy. So, we will wait a while and see.

In just a few days, we are off to Georgia for 10 days. Boo Boo is very excited about flying in an airplane. She is also making a list of all the things she wants to do on her big date days with daddy (while mommy is in the Waldorf homeschool conference). I'm hoping all goes well and I get to attend both days :-) After a long weekend in Alpharetta, we will be headed down to LaGrange to Pa's house. Boo Boo is very excited to see Pa and everyone else. She has great big plans for the week.

BUTTERFLY RELEASE: MONARCH AND BLACK SWALLOWTAIL

This morning Boo Boo hopped out of bed very quickly to see if any more butterflies had emerged. Who could blame her after such an eventful day yesterday. We were greeted by another (our third) beautiful Monarch butterfly whose little wings were still damp and fresh. Boo Boo thought she might like some watermelon and orange slices for breakfast ... so, she received a fresh fruit buffet. However, she was not quite hungry yet ;-)

We also noticed that our Black Swallowtail chrysalis was quite dark and detailed wings shown through. I was keeping a close eye on this little one (so I thought) but our amazing Black Swallowtail snuck up on us. These little creatures have not been quite as predictable as our Monarchs. We've missed the pupating, which has occurred in the middle of the night and now the first emerging butterfly. Hmmmm ... I may need to send a memo to the two remaining ones that we would prefer them to be on the same schedule as the Monarchs ;-)

Daddy came home just in time today to witness the release of our third Monarch. This lady was ready to fly. The moment I took her out ... off she went. I could see the disappointment in Boo Boo's eyes. She really did enjoy the slower process of separation yesterday. So, we took a peak at the newly emerged Black Swallowtail to see if she might be ready to venture into the garden. Her wings looked fairly dry and she readily hopped onto my finger and then Boo Boo's. She had not tried out her wings in the cage at all and was more than happy to crawl all over Boo Boo and I. She rested with us for a while, enjoying Boo Boo's flowered pants and dress. Boo Boo giggled as she crawled up her arm and called it "grandma tickle". (Yes, Grandma Leda ... she has named the infamous way you tickle her with your fingernails ;-) and now requests it all the time ... however, I think the butterfly was a bit too ticklish).

Needless to say, the whole family is really enjoying our adventures in butterfly rearing and we are looking forward to the first Zebra Longwing eggs and Painted Ladies to come. The garden is growing and we are really enjoying the process. After our trip to Georgia, Boo Boo and I will have to focus on expanding the ENTIRE yard to a butterfly garden ;-) Who needs Butterfly World ;-)

PHOTOS OF BLACK SWALLOWTAIL PROCESS

MORE BLACK SWALLOWTAIL PHOTOS