A Welcome Retreat…

,

This has not been a very fun summer for me or our family.  We have been largely confined to our home as our son, Kai, recovers from hip surgery.  I have written about his journey which you can read here if you like.

Well, we received some great news from the doctor 2 weeks ago…Kai was allowed to start to walk again.  Yeah!!!  Although it has been slow going, he is making great progress – he has already ditched the walker the doctor prescribed and insists on walking by himself, he goes to PT twice weekly and is making great progress.   We have been waiting for this moment and decided to take some time to go on a little vacation before the kids start school.

A Welcome Retreat

We do have a favorite vacation spot up in the Arizona mountains called Williams.  Williams is a little town, just east of Flagstaff and is situated right on Route 66 and is the gateway to the Grand Canyon.  We are blessed that my sister-in-law’s family has some cabins up there that they graciously allow us to use.

We couldn’t wait to go, especially the kids.  We wanted to do something special for all of them – Kai because he was such a great patient and his sisters because they were so helpful to him and didn’t mind the extra attention that he got.  And so we packed up our van and started up the mountain.

Arizona mountains

Now all of us love to fish, so we dropped our bags off at the cabin and drove to the lake to start fishing right away.  My youngest daughter, Gracie, caught a fish but we had to leave soon after we arrived because a thunderstorm moved in.

The next day we went to one of our favorite lakes and started fishing.  The morning was windy and we didn’t catch a thing, not even a nibble.  I was ready to quit after 4 hours, but my husband talked me into staying for 15 more minutes.  Well, guess what happened?

Arizona mountains

 Kai caught a fish and the wind calmed down.  Over the next 2 hours, we caught 18 rainbow trout between the five of us – Kai caught 6!

Arizona mountains

Arizona mountains

We threw some of them back, but came back to the cabin with 13 fish which I cooked for the kids.  As for me, I caught 5 fish and 2 severely sunburned feet 😉

Kai

Although we were only able to spend two full days there, it was just what we needed as a family to refresh and rejuvenate before school starts again in only 5 days….

**I do want to apologize for not posting, visiting and commenting as often as I would like, but my life has been quite crazy this summer.  I am thankful that school is starting again and my life will get back to normal 🙂

What Is Wrong With This Picture?

pumpkin

Can you figure out what is wrong with this picture?

I can see two things.  First of all, my son is holding a pumpkin from our vegetable garden in July.  Definitely not the normal time of year for seeing kids with pumpkins.

The second thing wrong with this photo is that my son is in a wheelchair.  He needs the wheelchair as he recovers from hip surgery.  We go back to the doctor this week and Kai will hopefully be able to stand up and start physical therapy and get out of that wheelchair.  I don’t mean to complain about the wheelchair…it has made our lives much easier and Kai can really get around very well in it, but I yearn for the day when he will be able to run around again.  You can read more about Kai’s story here if you like.

 Once Kai can stand and walk, he no longer will rely on us to carry him – I actually threw my back out last week picking him up and still cannot pick him up.  We are looking forward to his doctor saying that he can walk again 🙂

Okay, back to the pumpkin….a few weeks ago, I wrote about “An Escapee From The Garden” which featured our pumpkin plant that decided to grow outside of our garden.

Back in March, my daughter, Gracie planted the seeds….

plant pumpkins

 They took about 7 days to germinate and then quickly began to grow.  *Now, we realized that the time to plant pumpkins for the fall is in June, but the kids really wanted to plant pumpkins early, and so we did 🙂

pumpkin plants

Being rather new to vegetable gardening, we did not realize how large the pumpkin plants would spread.  Pretty soon one of our plants decided to venture outside of the garden…

outside of the garden

Shortly afterward, we noticed a little pumpkin forming – outside of the garden, of course.

pumpkin plants

It grew quite quickly…

pumpkin plants

This morning, I stepped out into the garden and this is what I found…

pumpkin plants

And so, we are probably the only people in Arizona who have a pumpkin gracing the top of their kitchen table in the month of July.

We planted new pumpkin seeds this month in hopes of getting pumpkins in time for fall.

On my way back inside from the garden, I noticed another escapee from the garden…

watermelon plant

Our watermelon plant decided to copy the pumpkin plant.  Next month may bring watermelons forming outside of the vegetable garden as well.  Oh well, we have plans to expand our garden this fall 🙂

I hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July celebration!

A Memory Tree

Do you have a memory tree?  A tree planted in memory of a loved one?  I would like to share with you my memory tree that I planted in honor of someone very special.

memory tree

Desert Willow (Chilopsis linearis)

You may or may not have noticed in my previous posts that I mention my siblings, our families and my mother, Pastor Farmer.  However, I have not mentioned my father before.

My dad was a very special man….not just to me, but to countless others.  He was a great dad to me and my siblings, but he also dedicated his life to those children who did not have parents who could care for them. 

memory tree

Desert Willow in the park.

My father worked as a social worker in Los Angeles, working with teens in group homes and foster care.  For many this can be a very difficult job, but to my dad, it was a very rewarding career.  He loved nothing better then to help people.

Just over three years ago, my dad and mom took a huge step and moved to Arizona to be near me and my two siblings.  Both my parents had just retired and had plans to enjoy their children, grandkids and travel. 

Just three months later, on Memorial Day 2007, we were to spend the day at my parent’s house for lunch.  But when we arrived, my father had an earache and small fever and was in bed.  A couple of hours later, he was incoherent and was rushed to the hospital.  He was diagnosed with pneumococcal meningitis and never regained consciousness. 

To say that we were reeling from the shock of his sudden death, is an understatement.  But, we were so blessed to have him in our lives and the memories of him sustain us until we can be with him again in heaven.

memory tree

Desert Willow tree at Scottsdale Civic Center.

One of my special memories of my dad, occurred when I was 12 years old.  I was going through a very awkward period as many 12 year olds do.  I was tallest in my class, had pimples, freckles and felt so ugly.  But I remember my dad looking at me and telling me that I was beautiful.  I didn’t know how he could think that, but I knew he would never lie to me, and so I hung on to the fact that at least my dad thought I was beautiful.

After my dad’s death, my mother divided my father’s ashes between me and my siblings and I used some of mine around a tree that I had planted in his honor.  It is a Desert Willow (Chilopsis linearis), which is one of my favorite desert trees.

memory tree

Flowers from other Desert Willow trees in my garden.

I love the subtle scent of the leaves, but my favorite part is the beautiful flowers that occur spring through fall.  As beautiful as this tree is when in bloom, it is entirely unremarkable in winter, when it sheds it’s leaves.

Hardy to zone 7, this southwest native, does best with regular irrigation.  I prefer training them as multi-trunk trees instead of a single (standard) trunk. 

Of all my plants in my garden, this one is the most special to me because whenever I look upon it, I remember my dad.

memory tree

This is the photo that I use for my google account.   These are flowers from my Desert Willow Memory Tree.

Just three years ago, this week, my dad passed away.  On the anniversary of his death, we were all gathered together to celebrate the graduation of my daughter, Rachele, from high school.  Later this year, my brother and his wife will welcome twin boys into the world.  It is wonderful to see how my dad’s legacy lives on in both his kids and grandkids lives.

My Kids

My Kids Brittney (her broken feet have finally healed),  Rachele (our graduate), Jeff (my son-in-law), Ruthie Gracie & Kai

**I would like to thank you all for all of your supportive comments as my son Kai has been recovering from surgery.  To be honest, I have been completely overwhelmed by your support and it has helped me through some difficult days.  Kai is doing so much better that he is almost off of prescription medication for his pain.  Of course, since he is feeling better, he wants to move into different rooms of the house, so my arm muscles are getting bigger due to my carrying him, which is easier then getting to the gym these days 😉

Kai

It will be Kai’s turn in about 10 years…

I must admit, it feels great to slowly get back to our regular routine and I plan on posting regularly again 🙂

I hope you all have a great day!

Our “New” Normal Life….

I would like to thank you all for your kind words, prayers and support.  Even though I may not have answered you personally, I have read your comments and they meant so much to me.  Especially as I would read them from the hospital.

We are now home and the surgery went well.  For those of you who would like to know how things went and how we are doing, I thought I would let you read the emails that I sent out each day during the surgery.  I promise that I will soon be back to posting about gardening 🙂

prayers and support

 Kai getting ready for his first outing….to the mailbox.

Friday:

Well, we are now in the waiting room and Kai has just been taken into surgery.  He did very well this morning, although we could tell he was nervous. As soon as he walked into pre-op, they let him choose a stuffed animal to keep. He chose a little dog that looks like our dog, Tobey.

They gave Kai some medication, Versed, to make him less nervous, but warned us that it may make him sleepy or act like he is drunk. Well, Kai certainly acted drunk. It was really kind of hilarious. I have had Versed before, a few times, but do not remember what I did, which is probably a good thing 🙂

We finally had to take turns sitting next to Kai on his bed and holding him in our arms so that he would not fall out. The hospital chaplain came to visit and led us in prayer before surgery. I know that Kai won’t remember that.

As I was holding Kai in my arms, he looked at his dad and the doctor and said that they each had two heads. Then he looked up at me and tried to touch my nose.

Kai has had the same anesthesiologist before and he remembered Kai, which was nice. The doctor talked to us and went into more detail about what they were going to do. They will remove the old plate and screws from his hip and replace them due to metal fatigue. Then the will enlarge the hip socket and perform another bone graft.

We have been through this before, which makes it easier in some ways and I was doing pretty good today until Kai was being wheeled into surgery. As we  were walking down the hall away from Kai after kissing him goodbye. As I turned back, Kai was watching and I waved goodbye and he returned my wave….then he held out his arms for me to hold him as they wheeled him through the door. I started to lose it then, but thankfully Kai did not notice.

Surgery should take 2 – 3 hours. Thank you all so much for your prayers and support.

I will update more later 🙂

Noelle

Friday – Post Surgery:

Hello Again,

Kai’s surgery lasted 2 1/2 hours. They ended up doing more than we had expected. They removed the metal plate and screws that have been holding Kai’s hip in it’s socket due to ‘metal fatigue’ and replaced them. They also had to cut his femur as part of the procedure as well as perform a bone graft. After the surgery, we went back to post-op and sat with Kai. He was in pain, but as soon as they gave him morphine, he drifted off and slept soundly. He snores after surgery, just like he does when he normally sleeps.

We were taken to Kai’s room very quickly and settled in. Kai’s legs are being held in a foam structure to keep them from moving in order to keep his hip still.

The doctor said that the surgery went well but we had to be very careful not to move his hip since there are only a few screws holding it together…..his words, not mine. That is what makes me so nervous when we take him home and we have to lift him to go to bed and to the bathroom.

Kai’s pain is quite intense and he gets morphine every 2 hours. But he did have a little appetite for dinner (he was sick to his stomach earlier). When they asked him what foods he liked, he said “everything”. They then asked if there was anything he didn’t like and he said “salad”.  I didn’t know that….we have salad a few times a week and he never complains.

We were so encouraged today by a visit by my brother, our pastor, my in-laws who brought us pizza and our friend who is a nurse and the house supervisor at the hospital and a good friend from our small group at church. She has made our stay at the hospital as nice as can be. As I mentioned before, she was there with us in pre-op and then in recovery and then made sure that we were assigned a nice, quite hospital room by ourselves. She even came by later before she left for the day and gave Kai a gift. Tonight, my cousin is stopping by to visit.

Kai’s dad is spending tonight with Kai and the doctor will come by tomorrow morning to check on Kai and see if he will be able to come home tomorrow. While I am excited to get Kai at home, it brings a whole host of different stresses since we do need to move him from time to time and it really hurts him.

I could write more, but I only got 5 hours of sleep last night and am a little tired 🙂

I just want to thank you all so much for your support and prayers today.

-Noelle

Saturday:

Hello Everyone,

This morning, we found out some disappointing news. Kai will have to spend another night in the hospital. He is having too much pain for him to be able to come home. They now have him on both morphine and valium.

This is the first time after six surgeries that he will have to spend a second night, which disappointing, but I would rather have him in the hospital where they can better handle his pain then here at home. So, I will spend tonight with him so that his dad can get a good night’s sleep at home.

Kai is upset that he cannot go home too and he misses his sisters. So, I am bringing them today to help cheer him up.

Thank you again for your prayers….they are much appreciated.

Noelle

Saturday Night:

Hello,

Right now, it is very peaceful in Kai’s hospital room, except for his snoring. It is actually a very sweet sound because it means his pain is being managed enough for him to sleep.

Every two hours, he does experience significant pain and receives more pain medication. But, he is handling it very well. Kai is very sensitive to his bed being bumped or anyone even leaning on it because it hurts him. He asked me very politely “Momma, could you please not bump the bed.” If it were me, I probably wouldn’t be quite as polite.

We have been so blessed by family and friends. The only time that Kai smiles is when someone comes to visit him. His sisters all came today and his brother-in-law along with grandparents, cousins and friends. Kai is happy they are here, but he is usually preoccupied by his discomfort.

Later this evening, he started to cry because he was homesick. Hopefully, he can go home tomorrow….we are optimistic about that. We did discover movie channels a little while ago that play kid movies, which made Kai very happy. He also ate a fairly good dinner, which is always a good sign.

Kai’s dad has gone home to get a good night’s sleep and I am getting ready to watch a DVD on my laptop before I try to sleep in 2 hour increments (between pain medications).

Thank you again for your support and prayers.

Noelle

Sunday:

Hello,

Well, we made it home! As nice as everyone was at the hospital, I am so happy to be home.

Yesterday, Kai’s dad left after dinner to go home and sleep….he really needed it. Kai and I were doing pretty well and he was still receiving morphine to help manage his pain. As long as he was on morphine, he had to stay in the hospital. Kai went to sleep at 9:00 last night and I was getting ready to when we found out that they would be moving a new patient into the adjoining bed. And so, once the new little boy and his dad were settled in, I fell asleep around 1:00 a.m.**I almost hate to mention this, but both the little boy and his dad snored and it was really hard to sleep.

Even though I didn’t get to sleep until late, the night was not without it’s victories. Kai slept for 5 hours straight and only woke up because his IV machine was beeping. Before, Kai would regularly require pain medication every 2 hours. The other great part was that since he was doing so well, we decided not to add the morphine to his other medications to see how he would do. He did great.

After sleeping a total of 4 hours in 2 hour spurts, I waited for the doctor to arrive at 6 a.m. He was happy with Kai’s progress and said that he could go home later once we met with the Physical Therapist and practice how to lift and move Kai. We have done this for him after his previous surgeries, but it is always helpful to have a refresher course.

I wish that I could say that Kai had a nice time this morning in the hospital, but he didn’t. Between being moved, which is scary and does hurt, he also had to have the dressing on his surgery incisions changed. This meant that Kai had to be almost on his side which was scary for him, but he was really so brave.

He does not like being moved and starts to tell us exactly how to move him (he gets a bit bossy), but he does it so politely, it is almost funny. For example  “Dad, don’t lift my legs until you lift the rest of me….please?”

Once we got him into his wheelchair, we took him around the hospital to see the sights. We even ventured outdoors….there is just something so rejuvenating about enjoying the outdoors after being stuck inside for a couple of days.

We went by the cafeteria and the vending machines and let him pick whatever he wanted to eat and drink. Kai chose a bag of Cheetos and bottle of Orange Fanta soda – definitely NOT things that we let him eat usually. Then on the way home, we stopped by the McDonald’s drive-thru for lunch. I did mention that once we get home, we will be back to eating our ‘normal’ foods and he will need to eat what I cook for dinner. Actually, Kai eats pretty much anything and actually likes my cooking and never complains about food 😉

I was so tired after we got home that Kai’s dad took care of everything so that I could “check-out” for a few hours for a nap. I feel so much better now.

We would appreciate your prayers for Kai’s continued healing and that the pain will lessen. He is still in pain, but it is manageable. Also for endurance as we take care of his every need. I put the gifts he received in the hospital in a gift bag next to him so he can easily pick what he wants to play with – although he isn’t playing with anything today…maybe tomorrow.

Thank you for your support and prayers.

Noelle

Monday:

Hello,

I hope you aren’t getting tired of these updates…if you are, I honestly don’t mind if you delete it. But for me, in addition to updating our family friends, they are also a good way to document our journey with Kai.

Kai is doing better in general. He is definitely happy to be at home. He slept fairly well last night in his own bed and his dad spent the night on the floor in his room. Kai has to take medication every 2 hours.

He is definitely more involved in the happenings of our daily life. Like previous surgical recovery episodes, Kai’s day revolves around being in one of 3 places….in a bed we made for him on the floor in the family room, in the bed in his room and in his wheelchair.

Up till now, his dad has been the one carrying him from place to place, but I started carrying him today as well. He has definitely grown in the two years since I have had to carry him….he is heavier. After the first time I carried him, he said, Dad does it different then you…..I don’t touch his chest when he carries me.” I told him that my chest is a little different from his dad’s 😉

Kai’s appetite is gradually coming back which always makes me happy. He is still in pain, but it is less then the day before. We gave him a sponge bath tonight, which made him feel more human. He asked me to push his wheelchair to where his sisters were playing Wii. He doesn’t feel comfortable using his left hand where he had his IV, so he just encourages them as they play their game and gives advice.

Kai’s sense of humor is returning too. His grandparents bought him a giant cookie cake and I cut it up into slices for everyone. Kai wanted the one with his name on it and as soon as I cut it, I said, “Here is your cookie”. And Kai replied, “I can’t quite reach it,” all the way from the family room.

For my husband and I, our lives are slowly getting back to normal. We are mentally and physically tired and are having to fulfill all of Kai’s needs….. getting him water & food, repositioning his legs and body a couple of time each hour, bringing him his toys, helping him go to the bathroom, etc. Even making dinner tonight was a chore because I had to keep pausing to help him. We did try to do some normal things today like going to the gym as well as making a homemade dinner. That seems to help us settle back into our old and now modified routine.

The girls are being so nice and understanding and we are working on spending time with each of them. When Kai is in pain, he likes having his left foot massaged and the girls have also learned how to do it. Kai says when his foot is massaged that it helps the pain in his hip.

Today, Kai will go on his first outing….our weekly Tuesday night dinner at my mom’s. Kai will be happy to see his aunt, uncle and cousins.

Thank you all again for your prayers.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend.

Noelle

The Long Road Back…

Sunshine In My Life….

Angelita Daisies

I love Angelita Daisies (Tetraneuris acaulis), and how their bright and sunny faces brighten my day.  But today’s post is not about gardening, but about a little boy who brings sunshine to my life every day.

I would like to share with you a story about this special little boy who has gone through so much adversity in his short life but who has blessed me so much….my son, Kai.

sunshine to my life

This was the first photo that I saw of my son, Kai.  He was abandoned by a river when he was just two weeks old.  He spent much of his early life in a Chinese orphanage and then in foster care.

We had adopted our third daughter, Gracie from China a year and a half earlier and had decided to adopt again.  As soon as I saw this picture, I just fell in love with Kai’s little face.

If you look closely, you may notice his feet turn inwards, a lot.

sunshine to my life

Kai had two club feet and club hands.  We thought that we could handle that, – our daughter Gracie had been born with a club foot and we went through surgery and rehabilitation just fine.  

But the medical paperwork from the orphanage also said that Kai had a dislocated hip…he was born that way.   

The news we heard from the doctor was not good.  The doctor suspected that Kai had a condition known as arthrogryposis, which can be caused when the birth mother’s womb is too small for the developing baby.  Hence, the club feet and hands and dislocated hip.  

The doctor told us that Kai would need multiple surgeries with lengthy hospital stays.  We were torn up by this news.  We were set to receive the papers from the adoption agency the next day to sign to formally agree to adopt him.  After a lot of prayer and talking to our daughters about what Kai would have to go through and what we would all have to do to help him, our entire family decided to go forward.  

While we were waiting to travel to China, we found out that Kai was from an orphanage that I had visited while in China adopting our daughter, Gracie a year and a half earlier.  So, I took out the photos of my orphanage visit and there he was….

Kai is in the back wearing

Kai is in the back wearing the multi-colored jumper.  You can see his club feet.

Our whole family traveled to China in January 2005 to go and get Kai.  We were so excited to meet him.  But, he was not sure about us…we definitely did not look Chinese and he was missing his foster mother.

2 1/2 years old

Kai was  2 1/2 years old.  He is holding the little red train we gave him.  He had a bag of candy given to him by the orphanage director in the other hand.

It only took about one day for Kai to fit into our family and he was absolutely inseparable from his new dad.

sunshine to my life
Guangzhou, China

Pushing two strollers in Guangzhou, China.

Aren’t the flowers beautiful?

First day home after our trip to China

First day home after our trip to China.

Kai fit into our family so well and I quickly learned how different boys were from girls.  Because of Kai’s club feet, he walked on his ankles.  It was amazing how fast he could walk.  He couldn’t wear shoes, only slippers.  

We were referred to a specialist for Kai and decided on the first course of treatment, which would be to work on his club feet.

Recovering from his first surgery

Recovering from his first surgery.

casts off

At the doctor getting ready to get his casts off.

Kai wearing shoes for the first time

Kai wearing shoes for the first time.

casts off

A few months later, recovering from his second major surgery.  His hip was moved to the correct place and pinned.  The lower leg bones were cut so that his feet could be turned outwards.  Kai was in this cast for 6 weeks.  As you can see, he did not let it slow him down.

Back at the doctor

Back at the doctor, ready to have this cast removed.

wrestle with his dad again

Cast off and now wearing a brace.  Now he was able to wrestle with his dad again.

Notice the left leg

Notice the left leg?  One day after getting his brace off, Kai accidentally pulled his sister, Gracie, on him and his leg broke.

sunshine to my life

Cast is off and now to learning how to walk again.  Kai ditched the walker two days later.

For awhile, Kai was able to run, jump and wrestle like most boys his age.  But, a check-up revealed that his hip wasn’t healing as well as expected, so another surgery had to be scheduled 1 1 /2 years later.

sunshine to my life

On the way to the hospital, yet again…May 2008.

sunshine to my life

Summer vacation, stuck in a wheelchair, but Kai made the most of it.  He caught 3 fish in one day.

sunshine to my life

Getting ready to race his cousins.  Kai’s favorite superhero “Super-Duper” made a surprise visit and pushed Kai in his wheelchair.  Kai won.  “Super-Duper’s” secret identity, is Kai’s uncle Brett.

 Kai recovered from that surgery quite well but will have to wear AFO’s (braces on his feet and lower legs), for the rest of his life.  He walks and runs with a limp.  Kai cannot run as fast as his classmates and is beginning to notice that.  He always wears long pants now, because he doesn’t like it when people stare at his braces.

Over Christmas, I was reading a book to him about a little lamb that had a limp, but was very special, just like him.  Kai was surprised that he had a limp….he didn’t know that.  I thought that he did.  But, it didn’t seem to bother him after he found out. 

A couple of months ago, we received the news that Kai needs another hip surgery.  We were dismayed at the news, although we knew that Kai would probably require additional surgeries during his life.  But, he is just such a normal little boy that it is so easy to forget that he even has special needs.

He will be confined to a wheelchair again for 6 – 8 weeks.  Since Kai cannot put any weight on his hip we have to take care of most of his basic needs during that time and do a lot of lifting and carrying.

Today is Kai’s eight birthday, and tomorrow he will be in surgery.  But for today, we celebrate…

I know that Kai will meet this challenge as well and continue to display the resilience that continues to amaze me.  Before we know it, he will be back to wrestling, running, riding his bike and scooter. 

I would appreciate your prayers and thank you for letting me share about my son.  I promise I will soon be back rambling about my desert garden as well as other gardens I encounter 🙂

Our “New” Normal Life….

Ready To Fly Away From Home….

You know how our kids are often excited to leave home and go out on their own?  Well, that is what thought came to my mind as it was time for us to let our butterflies out into the big world.

We have been raising butterflies from a kit that came with a coupon to receive caterpillars by mail, a butterfly enclosure and instructions.  Each step has been very interesting and informative, not only for our kids, but for me as well.  I have posted about each phase and you can read about the caterpillar stage, the chrysalis stage and the emerging from the chrysalis.

It was now time for them to go and explore the world for themselves.  The kids were excited to help let them out of their enclosure which except for the cups they were raised in caterpillars, it is the only home they have known.

raising butterflies

My son was the first to put his hand inside and bring out a butterfly.  He was just so tickled that a butterfly was sitting on his hand.

raising butterflies

Next, it was my daughter’s turn…

raising butterflies

Now Gracie is normally a bit squeamish about bugs, but she was simply entranced by this butterfly.

raising butterflies

She carefully put him on my Purple Lilac Vine.

butterflies

It only paused a few seconds, before it flew away.

The makers of the butterfly kit highly recommend releasing the butterflies into the wild as they are beneficial to the environment.  They are important pollinators and even though the caterpillars were raised in a sterile environment, they know what to do as soon as they are released as adult butterflies.

raising butterflies

My kids had such a great time holding the butterflies before they flew off.  **As you can see, the hand holding this butterfly is quite dirty and obviously belongs to my only son.  I have raised 4 daughters and their hands never seemed to get as dirty as his does 😉

raising butterflies

This one made straight for my flowering Palo Verde tree…

Palo Verde tree

I mentioned in my last post that we did have a surprise occurrence while raising butterflies.  One of the chrysalis had a split down the side and the butterfly in it emerged a day later then the others.  It could not completely get out of the chrysalis – it was stuck on it’s lower end.  It was also obvious that the wings were deformed.  My husband helped to take off as much of the chrysalis he could from the back end of the butterfly, but part of it would not come off.

butterflies

You can see part of the chrysalis still attached to the end and the wings were not completely formed.  However, he was able to fly a little.  And so we put him on my Lantana shrub, where he would not have to fly much and could enjoy all of the flowers he could.

Lantana flowers

You can see his tongue sipping the nectar out of the Lantana flowers.

I must confess that this Butterfly Kit was a spontaneous purchase.  We saw it our local warehouse store and bought it for my daughter.  I have been so pleased at this entire experience.  

My kids and I have learned so much and I highly recommend trying this.  You can purchase your own kit at www.insectlore.com  They even have other kits available where you can raise ladybugs, praying mantis, spiders, ants and worms.  Now, I just need to decide what we will raise next.

Thank you for going on this journey with me and for leaving your wonderful comments.

Beauty Emerges….

Well, as I mentioned in my last post, the butterflies have emerged from their chrysalis.  We have been raising caterpillars that came with a butterfly raising kit which was a Christmas gift for my daughter.  You can read about the caterpillars growth here and their moving day here once they formed their chrysalis.

The caterpillars formed their chrysalis last Tuesday and we put them inside of their butterfly enclosure.  We hung the enclosure on a tree in the back garden.  I did have to bring it inside for a couple of nights when the temperatures dipped below 55 degrees.  

Well, Saturday morning dawned and it was a beautiful day.  I was happy because I got to sleep in a little bit.  As soon as I woke up, I went to take the butterfly enclosure back outside when I noticed 3 butterflies fluttering about inside of the cage.  

To say that I was EXCITED is an understatement!  I ran to get my kids to show them.  **The reason you don’t see me in any of the photos is because I still had my pajamas on 😉

raising caterpillars

We just sat there watching them and wondering when the others would emerge.  We didn’t have to wait long….

raising caterpillars

You could see the chrysalis begin to wiggle a bit and then the end would bulge out and the butterfly would emerge very quickly….seriously it took about 10 seconds.  The wings were wrinkled at first and it took about a half hour for them to fold out completely.  **The red stain is baby butterfly excrement (poop).

Then a minute later, another one began to emerge….

raising caterpillars

We were beside ourselves with excitement, especially the kids.  

raising caterpillars

I decided to get some pictures close up and opened up the enclosure so that I could fit my camera lens inside.  I just prayed that I did not have any butterflies relieve themselves on the lens (my husband would not be too happy about that – it is his camera).

Painted Lady

The butterflies are called “Painted Lady” and they emerged within a 3 hour period, except for one.

Painted Lady

We prepared food for the butterflies as directed by the manufacturers of the butterfly kit.  It was a mixture of sugar and water.  An eye-dropper was included for easy application.

Lantana

Applying the sugar water to flowers was recommended, so I used Lantana, which is very popular with butterflies.

Lantana

Almost right away, some butterflies made their way to the flowers and began to taste the sugar water.

butterflies

Their tongues are amazing.  They actually work like a straw.  You can see the black tongue above and it actually curls up.  

The butterflies only live for 10 days.  So, our plan is to observe them for 3 days and then let them go so that they can pollinate flowers and reproduce.

butterflies

Who knew that butterflies could be so interesting?

**Our last installment will be in a couple of days when we release the butterflies out into the wild.  There is also a story about the 10th butterfly who had to be helped out of his damaged chrysalis.

Moving Day for Caterpillars….

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I am sure that many of you have been on the edge of your seats for the next installment of my youngest daughter’s butterfly raising adventures 😉  In case you missed it, you can read the first installment here.

We have been waiting for the caterpillars to form their chrysalis so that we could take them out of their containers and transfer them to their new butterfly enclosure.  

butterfly enclosure

The caterpillars attached themselves to the underside of the lids and formed a chrysalis.  And so, the next step was to carefully take the lids off and take the caterpillars (chrysalis) out. 

caterpillars

To be honest, I was a little nervous about this part.  I didn’t want to accidentally dislodge any of the chrysalis from the undersides of the container lids.

butterfly enclosure

At this point, one of the caterpillars within the chrysalis began wiggling madly about.  Now, I usually pride myself on not being squeamish around bugs, but the wiggling kind of grossed me out a bit.

butterfly enclosure

The next step was to pin the lids to the lower sides of the butterfly enclosure.  

*You may notice that the enclosure comes with its own beautiful silk flowers, something that I try to stay from….I like real flowers best 😉

butterfly enclosure

The last step was to hang the butterfly enclosure outdoors and wait for the new butterflies to emerge in a few days.  

We can hardly wait….

A Surprise From My Daughter….

My youngest daughter received something very interesting in the mail earlier this week and she wanted me to share it with you.

butterfly kit

Butterfly kit

Can you tell what it is?  You may have to enlarge the photo.

butterfly kit

Caterpillars!

Okay, I admit that they look a little gross.  There are 5 caterpillars in each container.

Why get caterpillars in the mail you may ask?

Well, my daughter received the following kit for Christmas….

caterpillars

I found this butterfly kit at Costco for about $15 and just had to buy it for her.  She has been waiting patiently until spring temperatures arrived so that she could start raising her own butterflies.

There is a coupon inside that you send in to receive 10 caterpillars in the mail to get started.  She was so excited to open the box when it arrived in the mail.  

According to the directions, the caterpillars eat the food on the bottom of the container and grow big, VERY quickly.

butterfly kit

In just two days, they were larger (compare with first photo above).

We keep the caterpillars indoors and the first thing every morning, the kids have to check to see how much bigger they have become.  

butterfly kit

Yesterday, some of them were already hanging from the underside of the lid and this morning they all were.  This means that they are ready to form their chrysalis.

Once they have all formed their chrysalis, we can then transfer the lids to the butterfly habitat.  It should be a couple of days before we do this.

My kids are not the only ones interested in the caterpillars…..so is our cat.  We did have a little incident when the cat knocked one of the containers to the floor but, all the caterpillars survived.

caterpillars

We will keep you updated….hopefully we will be able to move them to their new enclosure in a couple of days.

Have a great weekend!

We are off to our son-in-law’s birthday party 🙂

Beauty Emerges….

Our Mysterious, Malfuntioning Hose….

Our family has been plagued by a long succession of malfunctioning hoses over the years.  

All five of our children have been victims at one time or another.  Occasionally even my husband has fallen victim to the hose.

Garden Hoses

These mysterious malfunctions seem to be a seasonal occurrence.  Warm and sunny days seem to bring it on.

My children swear that I am the one responsible.  But, I tell them that I would NEVER do something like that to them.  The hose acts of it’s own accord.

Garden Hoses

One minute I am watering my plants when suddenly the hose turns around all by itself.  I am honestly powerless to stop it.

Garden Hoses

My children don’t seem to believe me….