Life of a Painted Lady..

I invite you to join us for the main event, butterfly hatching!  This project is meant to demonstrate the life cycle and metamorphasis of a butterfly.  If you have never done this before, I highly suggest it!  The kids always love this project, and the butterflies can be released into nature once they emerge from the chrysalis.  Take a moment to check out http://www.insectlore.com/, and they almost always have special offers at http://www.livebutterflygarden.com/.   I took advantage of the special offer and got 2 for the price of 1!  I donated one set to My oldest's 2nd grade classroom.  They are in love!

So, these little critters arrived today.  They are about a week old (my guess, they are tiny!).  They are only about a quarter inch long right now, but will get nice and long and fat before they reach the chrysalis stage.  I encourage you to follow along with my blog, as I will be posting updates every couple days of their status, so you can see their growth! The stuff at the bottom is their food..  you'll see little fibers in there, that's the caterpillars' webbing.  Under the lid is paper, where the full grown caterpillars will attach themselves to form into the chrysalis. These little guys will reach that stage in a couple weeks!

Please follow along!  :)

Boredom Busters-Salt dough

So, today we had the warmest day of the season this year.  The kids wanted to stay outside forever, but being that it's not spring yet, nightfall still comes early.  I had to coax them all in the house, and decided to set them down with something fun, modeling dough!  A traditional salty dough thats fun to squish, squeeze, shape, or cut, is baked in an oven, and then can be painted, or food coloring can be added while mixing.
Want the recipe? Here goes!

2/3 cup flour
3 tbsp salt
1 teaspoon cooking oil
1/3 cup water

mix the dry ingredients first, then add the oil, then water.  dough shouldnt be sticky or stick to the bowl.  This is so easy and fun for the kids to mix!  After the kiddies are done mushing, squishing, and squashing, bake their creations in a prewarmed oven at 250 degrees for three hours. 

We decided to use cookie cutters.  Dough instructions are to roll out to 3/4 inch thinkness, but I liked mine a little thinner.  We poked a hole to thread some ribbon.  Here they are, just out of the oven.  Tomorrow they will get to paint them. (It's way past their bedtime!)