Buddy the caterpillar

Ben found a caterpillar crawling on the back patio on Wednesday. We looked it up and found out it was a monarch butterfly caterpillar, so we decided to keep it and make a little house for it (out of a Hy-Vee Spring Salad container :) ). We put sticks and grass and leaves in it, as well as a little sponge soaked in sugar water. This is not the actual caterpillar, I found a pic of it online:

Yesterday, we noticed it hanging upside down from the lid, connected by some silky stuff. After batting on it a few times, then realizing it was probably SUPPOSED to be stuck to the top, we discovered that is the first stage in forming a chrysallis.Again, not my pic:

We put the container in a quiet dark place in my room, and when we looked at it today it had formed a pupa! I finally got it together and took a picture! He's that little peapod looking thing hanging from the lid.

The kids named him Buddy. We'll be keeping you updated with his progress! According to the web, we should have a monarch in 9-14 days, how exciting!!

My little Hawkeyes

Today was Iowa/Iowa State day at school. All the kids (except Tyler, who is home sick) got duded up for it, and Matt took it one notch further :)>.

New shutters

Rich put up the new shutters today. I'm not sure if I like them or not. I thought they'd be darker...they are little more 'berry' than the front & garage doors. I think they'll be ok though.

Any thoughts? Comments?

I couldn't have planned this....

Lucy got ahold of these plastic lips tonight...they had a sucker on the other side of them at one point. So funny!!

Ben, the hard-hitting politico

Ben and 2 girls had to work as a group on a worksheet about the presidential candidates. The last part was a question, "Write one question that you would like to ask the candidates".

Hailee answered: "Do you think you will win?"

Sophia answered: "Do you think lots of people (will) vote for you?"

Ben answered: "Do you want cookies?"

Missing our Eli

When I went to tuck Grace in tonight I noticed she had taped a picture of Eli to her bed. :( We're missing our cousins!

New park equipment!

We walked up to Hawkeye Park tonight to play on the new equipment they just put in. It's really cool! The ground covering is a soft squishy mat-like thing, and the climbing thing is so neat! The slide is weird though, there aren't sides on it, it's just a skinny gray thing....looks a wee bit dangerous to me. The kids had a great time!