More About Caterpillars

I found this caterpillar on my Dahlias while watering. I have never seen a white one not to mention one so fuzzy. I saved it for Tayler, she likes bugs as much as I so we could learn about it.
Here is
Virginian Tiger Moth -- Spilosoma virginica

The second picture is borrowed from the Internet.

Our caterpillars attaching preparing to make their chrysalis.

In full chrysalis now, time to move them to the butterfly garden.

Vacation Bible School

I was super proud of Tayler Rayn this was her first time going up on stage with out being terrified. I am not sure what the trick was but it was a blessing! She sang, made all the motions, and kept a huge smile on her face! YEAH!

Bren did great with singing and all of the motions!

Not a good picture of Bren, but I wanted to get one of James in here even though he wasn't thrilled about performing. :) Our church is having VBS in July, so I took the kids to the First United Methodist where Joshua goes to Mothers Day Out. Joshua was able to attend also but I wasn't able to get a good picture of him from where I was sitting.
Making crafts was a favorite of everyone. I think Tayler and Brenden's second favorite was the singing and motions, I love to hear them practicing. My favorites were some alone time this is really the only time of year I am ever by myself, and of course the benefits of them learning more about the bible.

Boys will be boys...

Another favorite is playing Nerf on the Wii.

All in good fun, I catch these two wrestling a lot, at least they are always smiling and laughing it off.

Tayler had to come jump in on the fun, here she is just getting out of the way in time.

The Boys had Nerf wars with Josh! They even played in the dark one night. You can see the bullet heading toward the camera here on the left.
(And this is how I found them this morning :)

Wake Up Call

Bumblebee as baby.

Bumble Bee one of our Bantams is officially a rooster. He gave us a wake up call at 6 am Monday morning. I had a feeling all along due to his larger than life attitude as you can see in the last picture, he always felt the need to challenge everyone.

Bee challenging another possible rooster Nugget.

Growing on up and out!

Duey snuggling up to James.

Sonny has almost all feathers in now. Still not sure if we have a rooster or hen? I am thinking if it was a rooster we would have heard a crow by now though.

Here is our 2nd largest Butterfly a hen for sure with her owner Brenden and our neighbor Austin. We ate at McAllisters for dinner (kids eat free on Tuesday! Woo Hoo!)and Austin rode home with us to check out the tree house and play with the boys.

Big has been such a good boy and we are supper proud of him. He pretty much ignores the ducks and chickens, though babies still tend to peak his interest, still has come along way from being a duck retrieving dog! Here Tayler is saying I am watching you leave my babies alone!

Tayler and the mallards. She has chocolate on her face:). These were supposed to be Dueys ducks but Tayler has adopted them and spends more time with taking care of them than anyone.

Sonny and Duey getting ready for bed. Unfortunately they no longer are bed buddies once I noticed a few bite marks on Dueys' bill. They still hang out by the chicken cages together, Duey has more get away room out there.

Red Headed Woodpecker

About a week ago the kids and I stopped by the bank and saw one of these flying among the trees near the parking lot. We just sat and watched for about 15 minutes. This bird is one of the most amazing I have seen! I would have loved to have my camera but since I didn't I am borrowing these from the web. Fast forward to Monday on the way to drop the kids off at Vacation Bible School I saw one get hit by a car right in front of me. I prayed for it and asked the kids to pray as well for its safety if not hurt and to not suffer if indeed it had been hit. Tayler wanted me to stop right there bless her heart. I explained I can't just stop in the middle of the road, but that I would go back and check on it and help if I could. I drove back hoping it would be gone. It wasn't! I found it face down in the parking in lot. My mom told me to check just to make sure it wasn't still alive(now u see where my training comes from ;)again no such luck, I picked it up and set it in the grass so that it wouldn't be run over anymore. There wasn't an out of place feather anywhere, he just seemed to be sleeping. I am thankful I had my mom to comfort me on the way home. As she says nature is so cruel! I questioned why I had to see this beautiful creature lose its life. Then thinking further I thought how many people would actually pray or stop? I am unsure of that but I do know that for every animal I see near the road dead or alive I pray and have taught my children to pray as well.
I am very happy to say that when taking the kids to Vacation Bible School this morning I saw another one of these woodpeckers safe on a tree in someones yard. I believe God smiled on me this morning!
http://identify.whatbird.com/obj/678/_/Red-headed_Woodpecker.aspx
Here is a great website I love to go to for identifying birds we have seen.

Unwanted Visiters

My one tomato plant has had caterpillar droppings around it lately. I have tried to find the culprit numerous times. This afternoon before lunch Tayler and I were looking and I asked her to look with me, and this is what she found. I was shocked and then upon looking further we found eight all together! We have relocated them to another area far away from my plants!

Ceratomia undulosa

seer-a-TOHM-ee-uhmm un-dyou-LOH-suh

The Waved Sphinx Moth
This is what these caterpillars will eventually turn into.
Picture above borrowed from the below website.
http://www.silkmoths.bizland.com/cundulos.htm

I was cutting grass near the chicken cages and our one duck stays loose around them, I had Tayler stay out near him to make sure he didn't have a heart attack from the mower being so close. He seemed fine, I went so slow enough that I thought he was going to jump on for a minute. Driving off I heard Tayler yelling what I thought was He's Dead. So my first reaction was great the duck just had a heart attack, then I thought maybe one of the chickens in the cage had died?(all in seconds) I jumped off the mower, got it turned off but it was still rolling! And then I hear SNAKE! Curled up back behind the cages was this Copperhead, right beside where Tayler was sitting! I went and got a shovel and a cooler. I know you are supposed to chop the head off but I was unsure how to get it good without it slithering away or making it suffer. So I just scooped it up under the dirt and put it in the cooler. I called Josh to verify it was a Copperhead and then showed the boys to make sure they knew how to identify one. Ok so here is the part where you say Kristy is just plain nuts and maybe I am but...
I told Josh that I felt this was one of Gods creatures, God created it for a reason and it was at the wrong place at the wrong time but didn't hurt anything so I thought we should set it free. There are tons of mole or mouse holes where it was laying and I am positive it was waiting for dinner. We all hopped in the car and drove about 45 minutes away onto the wildlife management area and let it go. However had it been larger and more threatening we would not have done this! We have seen many snakes since we have here and very few live!

This is after being set free.
Along with the caterpillars, and snake we also have Armadillos and now also a ground hog! Now if you know me you know or even if you don't from the above paragraph that I am totally against killing ANYTHING. However I am so tired of our new lawn mower riding like a three horse wagon, and ankle breaking holes and have given Josh permission to eliminate! It is always interesting around the Jones establishment!