Raising Monarchs: Update 2-Starting Cocoon

One caterpillar is starting a Cocoon!!

And, no, I'm not referring to.....

and this movie....

Though, I kinda wish I was....I would totally watch that movie again. Those alien-cocoon-revitalized- old-people are so cute. Pretty darn sassy too. Plus, I have a soft spot for Steve Guttenberg. He was hot stuff in the Eighties. :-) 

No....I'm talking about a caterpillar cocoon. Take a look at our big guy in his "J" position with his silken thread  attached. He is going to shed his skin one last time and then form his Chrysalis. 

Pretty cool to watch!!

Make Your Own Party Hats

For the Rainforest Birthday Party I hosted, I decided to make these fun hats to go along with it. Super easy to make, too!!
 If you'd like to see what else I made for the rainforest party go HERE

Here's what you need:

large piece of posterboard

party hat template (printed out)

tissue paper (in a variety of colors)

paper letters (I found mine at the Dollar Store)

Glue/water mixture 50/50

paintbrush

tape

crepe paper streamers

Hot glue
Ribbon

~Print out the template in the size you would like and trace as many as you can fit onto the large posterboard. Trim them out and tape them into shape.

~With the glue/water mixture, paste on different colors of tissue paper (I used green to keep with my Rainforest theme). Let them dry (it doesn't take more than an hour).
*I added different layers of green to make stripes of lighter and darker green*
~Take your roll of crepe paper and pull out a longer piece (enough to go all the way around the wide brim of the hat). Fold it in half and take some scissors and make little cuts that go about 3/4 way to the middle of the folded half, don't trim all the way through. Once the whole strip is done, unfold it and hot glue the middle to the bottom of the hat. Fluff it out when it is dry.

 ~Use the same trimming trick to a smaller piece of crepe paper (folded in half) and this time wrap it around your pinky finger and then ease it off in that shape. Put a big dab of hot glue onto the tip of the hat and pop the center of the crepe spiral right on top of it. Add any extra hot glue you need to to keep the layers together. Once dry, fluff the top out.
~Use the glue/water mixture mixture to paste on the letters of children's names and let dry.

 ~Cut two pieces of ribbon (long enough to make it around the head to tie) and hot glue one end of each ribbon to opposite sides of the hat. Let cool and you're done!!

These are fairly easy to mass produce!!

 

I shared this post at the following funky linky parties:
Show and Tell @ Blue Cricket Design

Raising Monarchs Update 1

For the full "Raising Monarchs" post....

Update 9/12/2011

Well, our little caterpillar decided not to make it today. Only one day after it's time in it's new home. I read up on it....and it turns out this is a very commonplace occurance. The larva are super susceptible to illnesses. All you can do is make sure they have fresh milkweed, don't handle them much at all, clean out all the little caterpillar poops every day, and just wait and see.

So, we went back to the field and found 2 more caterpillars to try with (along with another batch of fresh milkweed). Here are the new buddies:

I found a small one and a large one in the hopes that a little variety would give us more luck. :-)

While we were out there, we saw quite a few monarchs zipping around:

 And, some that were ready to begin their journey south:

In two months, these Monarchs will probably have made it to Mexico. They store fat in the stomachs to help them have enough energy for the long journey. There was once a monarch tagged that had traveled 265 miles in one day!!!!

 If you want to help the Monarchs.....consider planting milkweed (there are tons of varieties which you can find at a local greenhouse) and making a "Waystation" for them. It a place to help them stop and rest up, breed, and move on. Lots of milkweed and lots of flowers make for perfect stop.