Made By You Monday - Sock Monkey for Easter

I couldn't leave the little guy out of a homemade Easter gift. I wanted to make him a sock monkey but I was having a hard time finding the socks. They are kind of pricey on Amazon. Then I saw that Hydee's daughter had bought a sock monkey kit at JoAnn's so I took my 50% coupon and headed over. THIS is what I found and it made me happy! The kit came with a pair of socks, embroidery floss, embroidery needle, a pom pom, buttons, and some felt and fabric. I didn't use all of it but now I have the left overs for another project. The directions were easy to follow and it didn't take me long to complete him.

Made By You Monday - Scripture Patch Dolls for Easter

Sorry for the bloggy silence. April is always our busiest month! For Easter this year I wanted to make something special for the girls. I started with the pattern for Black Apple Dolls and spruced it up to my liking. I took the girls to JoAnn's one day and had them pick out their favorite fabric. I picked a coordinating one and then set up a little sewing corner in my room and went to work at night after they had gone to bed. I loved the way they turned out and the girls loved them just as much! I think homemade gifts will be an Easter tradition!

Finally

Finally, someone (or something) in this house gets the recognition it deserves.

It really does have super powers. Have you seen my kids' hands lately??

The Caterpillars are Growing!

Remember these tiny guys?

Look at them now! We've had them for five days. This is such a fun process to watch!

Yesterday we read Waiting for Wings and Bonjour, Butterfly. 

Today we spent more time learning about butterfly eggs, painted lady eggs in particular.

We read Arabella Miller's Tiny Caterpillar and read some from the DK book Butterflies and Moths and from Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day. We learned the most however from the DK book. It was very interesting to learn how different butterflies lay their eggs.

I think our favorite was the Lackey moth who lays her eggs in a ring around a twig so that it looks like part of the plant. There are also pictures showing how the Owl butterfly larva grows within it's egg and then gnaws away and pulls itself from the egg. Since he is really hungry each caterpillar then eats it's own egg!

We're having so much fun exploring God's creation!

Oooey-Gooey Monkey Bread

I woke up early this morning. I had to text Kennedy's speech therapist and tell her we wouldn't make it to therapy since K is sick. Allergy sick I am certain, but sick none the less. Last night she said she was worried that she would be too shaky (both in movement and voice) and not be able to speak clearly enough for therapy. Breaks my heart. Life is hard.

But monkey bread is good and I didn't go back to bed after I was up early. I suggested it for breakfast. I didn't have any opposition. My friend, Marsha, has a recipe for Caramel Crescent Pull-Aparts that is just absolutely delicious! YUM! I mixed it with my trusty monkey bread recipe to produce the ooey-gooiest, tastiest monkey bread I've baked. Well, except for maybe the sticky bun pull-aparts with cream cheese. But this was easy, and good.

First, and I didn't measure, sprinkle (dump) brown sugar in a bundt cake pan, add a couple tablespoons of butter (thin little slabs), and some syrup. Stick it in the oven while it is preheating to 350 and let it melt, then stir it up.

Next cut up a can of biscuits, I used buttermilk flaky layers and cut them into sixths. Then have your little monkeys shake them in a bag of sugar (about a half cup) and cinnamon (a tablespoon or more) whilst singing "I'm No Kin to the Monkey."

(yes, there is an elephant on my counter. and a dolphin, too)

(look at those sad, sick eyes & that beautiful sunshine!)



Then you will bake it for 20-25 minutes. Take it out, flip it over and enjoy!

Butterfly Reading List

The great monarch butterfly chase
by Prior, R. W. N.
 
Explorer extraordinaire!
by O''Connor, Jane
 
Waiting for wings
by Ehlert, Lois.
 
The lamb and the butterfly
by Sundgaard, Arnold
 
Monarchs
by Lasky, Kathryn
 
From caterpillar to butterfly
by Heiligman, Deborah
 
Butterfly & moth
by Whalley, Paul Ernest Sutton
 
A butterfly grows
by Swinburne, Stephen R
 
Butterfly express
by Moncure, Jane Belk
 
Butterflies in the garden
by Lerner, Carol
 
Fancy Nancy bonjour, butterfly
by O''Connor, Jane
 
The butterfly alphabet
by Sandved, Kjell Bloch
 
Arabella Miller''s tiny caterpillar
by Jarrett, Clare
 
Butterfly story
by Hariton, Anca
 
DVDs
 
The Magic school bus. Bugs, bugs, bugs 
 
Reading Rainbow - Bugs

We Have Larvae

For the next several weeks we will be studying flying insects using Apologia's Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day as a reference. We will be working our way through this study with another homeschooling family. You can meet Rose here.

Rose and I bought  grow your own butterfly kits from Insect Lore at Hobby Lobby a couple weeks ago. It took about a week for our larvae to arrive but they showed up in our mailbox last night. I was nervous about opening the box this morning. First, it was cold yesterday and I don't know how long they were in the mailbox. Second, it said open immediately but I wanted to wait for the girls to be awake so they could see it right away. Third, I was afraid of what was in there. I'm not a big fan of the creepy and the crawly.

I was pleasantly surprised, nothing too creepy. They were packaged upside down and I didn't see any movement at first but now all 5 baby caterpillars are crawling around. I'm excited to chart their growth progress over the next couple weeks!

In other news I finally bit the bullet and transplanted the rainbow plants. I hope I didn't kill them. They seem rather fragile.

Kennedy made this little flower pot at Bible study a couple weeks ago.

I have quite the collect of books waiting to be picked up from the library for our butterfly studies. I'll get a book list up soon.