This week's Phineas and Ferb Friday was based on "Belly of the Beast. " In this episode the brothers make a mechanical shark and Dr. Doofenshmirtz makes lots and lots of saltwater taffy.
We made a papier-mâché shark. Not really to Phineas and Ferb standards--but we try.
Next we visited the lab of a friend from church to see sharks and other sea creatures.
Above, Nick is showing us a brittle starfish. Everyone loves it when Nick is speaking in church. He always finds a way to tell a good shark story. On Friday he had lots of good stories for us. Just last week he was tagging manta rays in Mexico and swimming with whale sharks--whale sharks (for those of you who don't regularly read shark books to their children) are the largest fish on earth up to 30 feet long. Can you even imagine? And he was putting cameras in their mouths.
Phineas and Ferb Fridays are so fun, our group keeps getting bigger and bigger. And this is not even a complete photo--no adults and no Lizzy.
It was.
Now for the butterflies. Several years ago I gave my mom California milkweed seeds for her birthday. Hoping to attract monarch butterflies I had tried growing them in my own yard but without success. My mom had a green thumb and her plants flourished. After she died, we moved a couple milkweed plants from her yard. Each year the we seem to get more and more butterflies. We like to capture a few caterpillars and bring them into the house so we can watch them grow big and fat, form a pale green chrysalis and then come out a new creature.
It so amazing when the butterfly first emerges from the chrysalis. A new monarch is like a newborn who instinctively grasps on to your finger. A newborn butterfly--still drying it's wings-- seems to prefer human companions. One butterfly we nicknamed Leroy stayed in Lizzy's hair for more than 8 hours.
Watching the whole process has filled our home with hope. The caterpillar turning into a butterfly is such a beautiful metaphor. When we didn't know better we mistook one black chrysalis as a failure. All the plants in the jar had wilted and there was some mold growing. Then we noticed the chrysalis was moving. We discovered that the chrysalis turns black just before the butterfly emerges. One more reminder that sometimes what we mistake for the end, is actually a new beginning.
7 comments:
I loved everything about this post from the creativity of your P&F Fridays to the butterflies.
I'm taking hope in the black chrysalis.
Sharks are so super cool! Were you sad to smash your pinata? It looked awesome. I would join your group if I lived closer. Beautiful butterflies, too.
I am so glad we get to join all the fun of Phineas and Ferb Fridays. Our Fridays would be so boring without friends like the Mitchells. My mom had fun tagging along on our adventures last week.
Our kids LOVE Phineas and Ferb. What a great idea! We need to try that next summer.
And loved what you said about the butterflies. We miss you all!
Thank you for this interesting blog. Glad to see you are still raising butterflies! I missed seeing Zoey. Was she the photographer for P&F this week?
this is interesting blog and loved post pics
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