Poor caterpillars

Hello, Luca writing. Our caterpillars were doing well until one of them died. The first one to die was "Tiny". He got to attached to his leaf of old Milkweed and then died because he didn't get enough nutrients. The second to die was "Lucky". We had his leaf on an egg carton and he fell into the hole. "Lucky" was not very lucky after all. :(

Monarch Morning

Saturday morning, Nana called me a little panicked. The hospice where she had been working as a gardener had instructed her to pull out all the milkweed in the gardens, as "it wasn't part of their gardening plan". (This, despite the fact that monarch butterfly habitats are already under siege on all sides) She was doing as instructed, when she found two plants, one with eggs and one with a live caterpillar on it. "I just couldn't throw him on the pile," she told me, "he deserves a chance to live." So she saved the plants, and at nine AM rushed over to my house to find a spot to plant them. The kids were elated that we were being given charge of new creatures, and I quickly googled "how to care for monarch caterpillars indoors". (Seriously, what did people do before the internet??) Mom arrived, and Luca carefully scoured the plant for any eggs, removing nasty aphids and spiders in the process. Sadly, the big caterpillar mom found that prompted all this had fallen off somewhere in transit. But we did find two new hatchlings (later named Lucky and Tiny), and we transferred to mom's mesh cat carrier. Then, as mom was literally walking over to pick up the plants for transplant, a monarch lands on the milkweed and starts laying eggs! Luca then once again went back to scour the plants for more eggs, and found at least two that the monarch had laid.

As a preschool teacher, I couldn't think of a better lesson illustrating how humans are screwing up, what we can do to fix it, and the general beauty of nature. What a magical monarch morning!

Luca and Astrid checking on Lucky and Tiny

Tiny (above), and Lucky (below)

Cat carrier/butterfly habitat!

First write

Hello viewers, Luca writing today. This is the first day I have written on this blog. I will usually be writing on Thursdays and Sundays, and rarely on Saturday. Anyhow, I'll tell you about my every day life. Speaking of every day life, Mom just accidentally mailed a few Shutterfly pictures to our old house, it was a disaster.

P.S. Dad picked them up.

Family Photos 2018

We have new family photos! Here are a few good ones.

















We didn't get family photos last year, so it's been a while!

Astrid at 3

Astrid had her 3rd birthday this year. It's amazing how she's grown!

For her birthday, we went to a farm to pet the animals and run about. Daphne and a few other friends attended. We started by visiting some goats.





Astrid saw some baby chickens and a pig.





After the farm, we went home for cake.





Great Grandpa attended, too. Jeremy is also in the pic.



Astrid is growing up so fast!

P.S. Yes, I know I'm super late posting this. It's been a busy year!