Delaney! Easter! Caterpillars!

Uncle Bill and Aunt Jackie are now parents to beautiful Delaney Grace. We hope to meet her sometime this week. Delaney was born on April 29th. Welcome to the family, sweet girl, and the world. It's nice to not be so alone at the end of April on the birthday list. Here's how the maiden Sinki family calendar looks:

1 - we remember Grandma P
6- Willa

7 - MaKenna

13 - Lisa

18 - Mom

27 - Amy

29 - Delaney

For Willa's birthday present, Uncle Bill and Aunt Jackie gave Willa the complete Ramona book collection (LOVE) and the Butterfly Garden kit. We put our order in, and 7-10 days later, a small box was atop our mailbox.

I opened the box, and took a photo (left)of the 5 tiny caterpillars. Willa was - instantly - in love. Then we left them for a few days to visit my family for Easter. We got back, and were amazed by how much they had grown in 3 days! The last photo was taken 10 days after they arrived. Giant! This is the last day they were all caterpillars together. Hours later one was already a chrysalis.

Speaking of Easter... here's a few photos of that: Lisa brought the dye and the eggs. 4 dozen was more (way more) than plenty for 3 kids and 2 "grown-ups."

Lisa goes big for the holidays, though. And it was fun.

Now we have 5 chrysalis who I moved to their new quarters. In about a week, we should see 5 Painted Lady butterflies. This has been fun, but do you KNOW what happens when they turn? I always thought they spun a blanket of silk around them to do their changing in a more private environment. Nope. They just kind of harden off, change color and texture, and then... their heads and first few set of feet fall off. Not pretty.

In the photo above, you should be able to find 4 chrysalis, silk the caterpillars spun to aid in their transportation about the cup, a DETACHED HEAD (I still have the willies), and a slowpoke caterpillar with a fully attached head.