Project 52: Week 26

What better to do on a summer day than water play at the gardens!

Pregnancy Update: 13 weeks

Good bye 1st trimester! Hello 2nd trimester!
It's nice to be in the 2nd trimester now. I'm starting to feel much better. Morning sickness was the worse I've had yet. But that has eased off and I can drink caffeine again (not that I'm drinking a lot). Hello coffee! Oh how I missed you! I still can't eat meat all the time but more times than not, I can. I learned in the last few weeks that it wouldn't be easy for me to be a vegetarian. The exciting announcement: I'm pretty sure I've felt little jellybean! The other night I had a small piece of candy followed by the first soda I've had in a while. Not long afterwards, I felt a little flutter. I've felt it a couple more times. Such a wonderful feeling!! I have another little announcement. Sean and Maddy were not born in the same place. Neither will this baby. After 2 uneventful and easy pregnancies and births, I've hired a CPM (certified professional midwife) and will be having a homebirth. Not everyone agrees with our decision but I've very excited!

A little picture fun: my 13 week baby bump and a peach.
Little jellybean isn't the size of a jellybean any more. He/she's now the size of a peach.

Muffin Tin Monday 6-27

Build your own salad...or just dip and eat each part by itself and eat it like my kids did. ;)


Cucumber, Ranch, Tomatoes
Ham, Cheese, Chicken
Mixed Greens

More Muffin Tin Monday ideas:

Project 52: Weeks 18-25

Trying to catch up here. Here's weeks 18-25 with an extra picture thrown in.

Sibling love:


Art group:


Maddy now likes sleeping with books:


Sean helped granddad tear down a shed:


We released a Polyphemus Moth that we had over wintered:


Fun after some rain:


Maddy, my water baby, heading straight for the water at the beach:


New swim suits:


Mall playdate:


Camping:

I'm still here!

Whew! Talk about a hiatus! We had computer problems where both computers were down. Hubby's computer is up now but mine is still down. Then Sean's recital and all the craziness with the puppies, my blog got put to the side. I'm back though. I'm way behind so I'm not going to catch up on the Muffin Tin Monday, School Days and Weekend Waffles. I'll just start back up. Though, I'm going to change things up alittle. Muffin Tin Mondays will be renamed and won't just be muffin tin meals but fun creative kid lunches. School Days won't just be a review on our week. Sometimes it will be a review of our week but sometimes it'll just be a project we did. Weekend Waffles...well, Jellybean doesn't seem to like waffles so I'll change it's name and make it a weekly recipe. For Project 52 I'm just going to make one update post to cover the weeks I missed. Of course there's also a recital post and pregnancy update post. So keep your eye out!

Difference Between Butterflies and Moths

Some may think that the difference between butterflies and moths is simply that butterflies are active during the day and moths are active at night or that butterflies are prettier than moths. The first part is mostly true but there are some day flying moth. You know the second part is not true when you look at the Luna Moth and the Polyphemus Moth. So what makes butterflies and moths different?

There are a few:

Both butterflies and moths start off as caterpillars but butterflies make a chrysalis and moths make a cocoon.
Chrysalis


Cocoon


The antennae on butterflies and moths are also different.
Butterflies have thin antennae that are clubbed on the end.


Moths, on the other had, have more comb-like or feathery antennae.


Another difference is in their bodies.
Butterflies have smooth, slender bodies.


Where as moths have stout, furry bodies.


One other difference I would point out is their typical resting position.
Butterflies tend to rest with their wings up.


Moths tend to rest with their wings out.

Polyphemus Moth

The Polyphemus Moth is another one that we didn't raise but released. The end of last October, my dad had found a good size caterpillar. He put it in a jar with a leaf and brought it home to me. By the time I got it, it had already made it's cocoon. By my dad's description of the caterpillar we thought that it was probably a Luna Moth. Because it was already October, the caterpillar over wintered in our butterfly tank on our porch. Today, it finally emerged! As it turns out, it wasn't a Luna Moth but a Polyphemus Moth. Both look very similar when they are caterpillars and cocoons.

Polyphemus Moth plants hosts:

• Birch
• Maple
• Oak
• Willow

The cocoon last October:


Just emerged, wings haven't inflated yet


The little hole it made in it's cocoon


The release:






It's a girl! Her antennae would be fuller if she were a he.