Eureka! Monarchs!

I bought a milkweed plant for $9.99 when we moved here. It has more than paid for itself in nature study! Camille has drawn it...

We learned about milkweed bugs that flocked to it, all the while I was sad that I hadn't seen ONE monarch visit. At least, we learned about something new...I figured. I was dismayed when I read that milkweed bugs are not harmful to the milkweed plant unless you're trying to cultivate them. We watched their eggs...and now we're watching as they go through their developmental stages, five in all.

Today, we went to look and lo and behold! There are THREE monarch butterfly caterpillars!

It was the whole reason I bought the milkweed plant in the first place. I just read Terry and the Caterpillars by Selsam to Danny and now Camille wants to wait until the chrysalis is formed and then move them so we can watch them inside, just like Terry from the book she overheard me reading to Danny.

She's looking at one of the caterpillars, I wish the picture would have shown it! It's there though.

There are sometimes I feel like I can't take a picture to save my life! Sigh. On the left, you can see the little yellow bugs? Those are little milkweed bugs. The yellow, white and black striped out of focus caterpillar is just one of three we saw on the plant today. I am so thrilled!