Marking Time...

At the beginning of the summer, I thought it would be fun to mark the first few weeks of summer with a little science experiment.  I ordered the kit off Amazon, but I think you can find them at Target or Wal-mart. 

When the butterfly kit arrived in the mail, the kids were so excited.  We sent away for the caterpillars and we were off.   It was fun to watch the caterpillars grow in size.  By the time they were ready to create their cocoons, they were huge and a little gross. :)

When the caterpillars are in their chryssillis', they are hanging upside down safely inside the net enclosure.  So... we weren't able to get a good picture of that process.  But... after they break out of their homes, this is the finished project.  (Kinda gross)

Collin just happened to be walking past the habitat when the first butterfly emerged.  It was fun to watch.  We'd walk past these little guys each day just waiting for one of them to make their move.

The picture below is the butterfly coming out of the cocoon.  You can see the paper at the top with the 4 remaining chrysillis' hanging down in the background.

The only downside to this experiment was.... MRS. FOX.  When the butterflies emerge from their chrysillis' you are supposed to put fresh flowers at the bottom of the habitat with sugar water sprinkled on top.  This will allow the butterflies to live in the habitat in case you don't want to release them right away. 

The only problem was that Mrs. Fox is a mouser.  She pounces on any little bug that gets in our house.... including butterflies in a net.  Mrs. Fox would pounce on the habitat and send the whole thing flying across the counter or the floor - including the bowl of water and flowers that were inside.  So... needless to say, the butterflies had be released before they met an untimely death by being squashed by the sugar bowl or the cat.

Our plan was to take the butterflies down to little cousin Alene's grave and release them there.  But, since the cat pushed up our timetable immensely, we decided to release them in the yard near the flowers.  It was kind of a delicate process to unzip the enclosure.

Finally, we were able to coax out the little guys.  They even let the kids hold them before they flew off to find a new home. 

Interestingly enough... all of the butterflies headed for my rose bushes.  Despite the cat, they liked my roses.

It was a fun experience.  We'll probably do it again as long as we can find a place to keep the habitat safe from our friendly neighborhood butterfly catching cat. :)

Mrs Fox... Houdini Cat...

Have you heard the story about our magical cat, Mrs. Fox?

Yeah..... well, this is a good one.

Friday was kind of crazy.  Ryan was trying to work from home, we were finishing up our last day of swim lessons, trying to pack for our weekend trip to the cabin (the first of the season and so the kids were ON FIRE to go), all the regular house / life stuff, and trying to leave at a decent hour in the afternoon.

The scene opens with the boys coming upstairs saying Mrs. Fox was stuck in the closet under the stairs.  I rolled my eyes and told them to let her out.  We've had issues with her in that closet before and I wasn't thrilled the boys had put her in there.

They proceeded to say the cat was stuck in the exercise machine and they couldn't see her to get her out.  I went downstairs to free the kitty and was surprised at what I found.

I can NOT see the cat.  She wasn't in the elliptical.  She wasn't anywhere.  But... we could hear her.  She was meowing and meowing and there was simply no cat.  I checked the wet bar.  I checked the fridge.  I checked the cupboards.  I then looked at the kids.  "Jackson.... did you put her in a bucket or something?"  "No mom!  I didn't touch her."  I know... accusing your kids... not awesome. 

Next stop.... the storage room.  I moved everything, the pails of wheat (see I'm a good Mormon.... I have my wheat), the suit cases, the camping equipment, etc.  No Mrs. Fox.  We hear her, but she is no where to be found.

We did the only thing we could do.  We said a little prayer.  Izzy did the honors.  Izzy said a prayer that Heavenly Father would help her find her cat and that she would be okay.  It was cute.

About that time, we have t-minus 5 minutes to get to swimming.  Ryan walked in the door from the gym, I explained the situation, and Izzy and I left for the pool.  Again... not cool to dump a problem on the other spouse, but in this situation.... tag... you're it!

When we got home from the pool, the cat had been found.  Here's how it went down.

While Ryan was retracing our steps, Alexis finally woke from the dead (don't you love summer and teenagers?).  She told Ryan about how she saw the cat jumping up on the water heater in the storage room.  (The doors were off due to the bathroom remodel.)  The only thing we could figure out was that the cat jumped up on the water heater, climbed the pipes to the opening in the floor boards, walked across the joists and then slipped down into a space in one of the walls.  To do this, she would have had to walk across the joists for almost 1/2 the house.

So.... he had no choice.  Ryan had to knock holes in the wall until he could spot her.  He thought he heard her up high and so that was the spot for the first hole - no cat.  He then undid a few light fixtures in an effort to pull her through with minimal damage - no cat.  Finally Collin was able to spot her in the wall with a flashlight.  We were lucky she wasn't hurt.  She had fallen all the way to the floor.

Mrs. Fox was so relieved to be free!  She was a little dirty but not that bad overall.  After a quick call to our contractor, the doors were finally put back on the storage room and a call to a sheet rocker for damage control is on my to do list for the week.  Fun!  I love spending money on stuff like that!  Grrrrr....

But... what is the alternative.  You can't just let the family pet die in your wall - knowing full well she is there.  Can you imagine the therapy bills for Izzy?  No thanks.  I'll just pay for the rock, mud, and tape.  :)