Our Family

 Now that it is fall, our "family" is shrinking.  It has been a fun summer as the kids have found lots of "pets" to adopt for a time.  Here is Elsie's chalk drawing of our family:
 

From left to right:  Dad, Mom, Peter, Elsie, Kimball, baby Anna, and then I think it's our caterpillar, a racoon (I think she meant cacoon), and our frog.  Unfortunately Little Grey didn't make it into the family this time.  The caterpillars we caught this year were bitter sweet.  At one point we had 5, but due to unknown natural circumstances, only 2 made it to the chrysalis stage.  Of those 2, 1 survived and flew away.  The other monarch butterfly emerged from it's chrysalis while Mike was gone and I'm afraid Mike is more of an expert on monarch care than I am, and the butterfly died within an hour or so.  The kids were devastated.  Peter kept crying on our deck, and wouldn't eat lunch.  I had to distract everyone with a trip to the park.  However, here are some pics of the 1 survivor. 
  
Isn't it beautiful?  It is so fascinating and amazing as they transform into these amazing creatures!  To think this tiny, delicate butterfly will begin it's amazing 3,000 mile journey to Mexico is mind boggeling.  Someday will have to follow their migration path and experience the journey with them.  Elsie had a "Fancy Nancy" moment in the picture below.  It was great!
 
As for the frog... Mike found a huge frog mowing the lawn one morning.  The kids were sooo excited.  The afternoon was spent building a cage for it and finding food to feed it.  From that day on, all the kids foraged grasshoppers for that frog.  Kimball would find one after dinner, pull the back legs off (yuck!), and hold it in his hand all evening until it was time to come in and feed the frog.    One morning Peter came up to me very excited and showed me his fist.  All I saw were bits of grasshopper legs and heads poking out of the cracks of his fingers.  I think he had 10 or so in his one little hand. Even Elsie helped catch them and contributed in the leg pulling.  Those poor grasshoppers, enduring such mutilation and suffering, but frogs must eat.  Here are the kids holding that lucky frog:


As the evenings got colder, and fall approached, Mike and I told the kids that in order to survive, we needed to let the frog go to hibernate.  They were very sad, especially Peter.  After a few tears, we let them go (yes, we eventually accumulated another).  It was a good experience, and I'm sure there will be future frog pets in the spring.  But for now, we will just enjoy our family of 6 and Little Grey!