22 Days and Counting...

RK's younger sister came in today to show us something amazing: SHE LOST HER FIRST TOOTH! (She will be in kindergarten next year.) She wasn't too sure about having the Tooth Fairy in her bedroom, so she left the tooth outside her room. The Tooth Fairy brought her one dollar! Thanks for sharing, KK!
Right behind her this morning was EH who lost a top tooth over the weekend. She got THREE dollars for her tooth. Apparently older teeth are worth more money in the Fairy Economy.
Guess what? Our Painted Lady Butterflies emerged from their chrysalises over the weekend! We left sugared water on sponges so they would have some food . It took 7-10 days for them to emerge. The chrysalises are still stuck to the containers by the cremasters of the pupa.
The adult butterfly emerges full-grown from the chrysalis. It will not grow any more. There is often some reddish meconium fluid as it comes out.
When the adult emerges, its wings are wrinkled and wet, but the abdomen is bloated with fluid. The butterfly pumps some of this fluid into the wings through veins to inflate them. The butterfly then rests and lets the wings dry out.
We added headlines to our "Time for Insects" research project covers. Headlines can only be a few words, pack a punch and catch your attention quickly. Here are some of our headline examples:

Katydids: Blood Spitters, Ant Attack!, A "Cockroachalicious" Look at Cockroaches, Harlequin Beetles: The Big Bugs, Dark Nights With Bright Fireflies, Katydids: Ripping Through Trees and Mantises: Cannibal Insects.

WOW! Those have my complete attention! We can't wait to show you the finished products.
We went outside in the cold weather (yesterday was a spring Texas day in the 90s; today it was around 50 degrees!) to make observations in our Science journals.

Adults can only eat liquid food through their straw-like proboscis. Most butterflies only sip flower nectar, liquids from rotting fruit, mushy bird dung, and mineral-rich water from puddles. This activity is called puddling.