Toad-A-Lee Bumputy

We went on a camping trip in Idaho, and I found a toad under a brick. I had to convince my mother that we should keep him and she finally agreed. We took him home and put him in a cage. I fed him a worm. I tried to feed him a fly, but toads can't climb like frogs, so he couldn't get a fly. The fly prefers the ceiling of the cage. He likes worms very well. They are very tasty things according to him. I named him Toad-A-Lee Bumputy, because he has bumps all over him.

My friend that was with us when we went camping, likes him. She likes all kinds of animals too. She took care of him when we went on a trip.

Toads are fun to play with. They are very funny creatures. This morning when I was trying to feed him, he didn't want to get off of my fingers. He has a very strong grip. He has claws that are somewhat sharp. He decided that he liked my hand much better then where I fed him. I finally made him get off. Then I fed him some mealy worms and put him back in the cage. You can buy mealy worms at the pet store. You can raise them yourself. They will turn into beetles, lay eggs, and then you will have more mealy worms. Toad-A-Lee Bumputy likes meal worms. Sometimes when he eats them he sticks out his tongue and tastes them first before eating them. I think he is afraid their stale. I would do the same thing if I were him.

CeCe Does Have Kittens!

I'm sorry I haven't written for a while. So I thought I should catch you up on what you missed.

Newborn David, my kitten

On April 30 CeCe had kittens. We were sitting and doing schoolwork when CeCe sat on Araya's lap. She started to cry. Mama thought that she might be in labor. We put a protective sheet and towel on the couch, and she had her kittens there.

CeCe to the Rescue of her starving kittens

As days went by they got bigger and bigger and bigger still yet. Then they got as big as their mother, and they kept growing. Now they are bigger then their mother. There were five kittens. One was called Samuel. We gave him to our friend Rachel. One was named Jonathon. We gave him to a boy named Mathew. But he got ran over. One was named Abigal. She was cute. She was Calico colored. We gave her to another family. One is named David. He's the longhaired tabby one. One is named Goliath, and he is the short haired tabby. We gave all the kittens away except David and Goliath. David is my kitten and Goliath is my sister's kitten.

CeCe havinig fun with her kittens

Recess time for the kittens

Even though their names are David and Goliath, I've never seen Davy pick up a stone and put it in a sling and try to hit Goliath. But they do like to play with each other. We named Goliath, Goliath, because he was the biggest kitten the batch. We David, David, because he was the smallest kitten in the batch. But now they are about the same size. Davy looks bigger though, because he is long haired. I don't know, maybe we should have named David, Goliath and Goliath, David. But I think their names fit.

The two giants Goliath and David

David, just after he slew the Philistine giant, Goliath, and the ladies sang, "Saul has slain his thousands and Davy his ten thousands."
And his fugitive life began.

I'm Going to Get a Betta Fish!

I'm going to get a betta fish! I town just put in a new Pet Co. We've been to it several times. I has the most lovely betta fish. I bet you've never seen a prettier fish.

Betta fish live in Thailand. They can live in rice patties and canals.

Betta Names

I'll just name a few bettas: half moon betta, crown tail betta or double tail betta. They all come in different colors. Each color has a name such iridescent half moon, and steel blue half moon. Half moons are my favorite betta. Crown tails are nice too. They use the same color names too, such as turquoise crown tail.

People farm bettas in Thailand and in other countries. Another name for betta is the Siamese Fighting Fish. In Siam, which is the old name for Thailand, they used to make them fight for people to watch. The males fight. If you put a mirror up to a bettas cage the male will flare up and possibly attack the mirror. If you have two males in a tank they will fight and one will die.

Fish that are ok to put with bettas

About the only fish that are ok to put with bettas are platies and mollies and slow moving tetras. Guppies aren't ok, and neither are goldfish. Goldfish are natural enemies of betta fish. They will fight to the death.

I can't wait to go to the pet store and get a betta. It will be so much fun.

Two Surprises in One Day

Today I finished my last first grade reading book. Because I finished have finished all these books, my mama bought me a new hermit crab. This is a picture of him exploring his new accommodations.
Hermit crabs are very accommodating pets. They don't pinch you very often, if your careful. I named my new hermit crab, Mr. Vince, short for Invincible, because nothing would stop him. He even walked over my other hermit crab when he was in the way.

Shortly after we put him in the cage, he walked over to an empty shell. "Oh, this shell is particularly beautiful. My shell is getting pretty much too small for me. I think I'll get a new shell. Is there anyone watching me? No, Hermie is sleeping. Here I go! Whew! I changed shells and no one saw me do it."

A few hours later, my other hermit crab, Hermie, walked over to Vince's now empty shell. "Oh, I like this shell. This is a nice shell. I think I'll move. I saw another hermit crab using this shell. He must have moved. Now I'll I'll just look around and see if he is watching. He isn't. Hurray! He's walking toward the cave. Now all I have to do is get out of this shell. Out I come. I'm out! I'm running as fast as I can to get it in. Whew! I'm in! I made it!"

Hurrays and Hurrahs for Painted Lady Caterpillars!

I just went over to look my butterfly eggs and they weren't butterfly eggs anymore! They were caterpillars! Each caterpillar is only about 1/16 of an inch long! They are really active youngsters, always looking for something to eat. I went down the hill and got them a great big thistle leaf, about 14 inches long. Mama got them some mallow leaves. Each leaf is about one inch across. We will see which leaf they prefer. This is the beginning of the second generation of butterflies. April 29 is our caterpillars birthday. Hurray! They have hatched! Pretty soon we will have some new butterflies. I can't believe that they can get so big. Right now they are so tiny!This is a picture of a caterpillar next to an egg. Click on the pictures to see them enlarged.

Passing on the Big E Award

I want to give my sister, Emily Rose, the Big E award, for an Excellent Blog. I want to give her the award because her blog is very excellent. She always writes excellent posts. I like her writing and her poetry. Good job, Emily Rose! You have a really good blog.

The Four Stages of the Painted Lady

My zoology book, "Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day", had an assignment to raise some butterflies. So we got on the web and Mama found a place to order butterflies called Butterflies and Blueberries. We ordered the kit with 5-8 caterpillars to raise to adulthood.

When our kit arrived, there were 7 caterpillars in a tiny plastic cup with some food. They were about 1/4 inch long when they came in the mail. Three days went by and then they were all about 5/8" long. The instructions said that when they were all that big, we should move them to another container, and give them some new food that was supplied by the kit. After a few days, I was looking at them, and looked at the lid of the cup. One was hanging. He was about ready to make a chrysalis. The next morning he was in a chrysalis, and two more caterpillars were hanging. One by one they all formed chrysalis.

About a week later I got up and something amazing had happened. There was a butterfly sitting in the container. We rushed out to the shop and got a giant aquarium to put them in. In three days all of the butterflies had hatched. The last one hatched the third day.

We were going to release them, but it was too cold outside, so we kept them and decided to try to get them to lay eggs so we could see the whole cycle again.

We put thistles in there for them to lay eggs on. Painted Lady caterpillars like to eat thistles. Two of the butterflies laid eggs, and maybe those eggs will hatch.

The Four Stages of the Painted Lady Butterfly

The first stage of a butterfly is eggs. On a bright spring morning, Mrs. Butterfly went over to lay eggs on the thistle plants. When the eggs are first laid, they are green. You can click on the photo to see it close up.


After a couple days, Mr. and Mrs. Painted Lady's egg turns gray. When it turns gray that means it is almost ready to hatch. After the eggs are laid it will take 3 - 5 days before they hatch.


The second stage is the larva stage. Most people think of caterpillars in this stage. The caterpillar crawls out of it's egg and eats it's egg. Eggs are natural nourishment for a young hungry caterpillar. They are very tiny when they hatch, but they grow very quickly. Within 12 - 18 days they will be 2 inch caterpillars and ready to form a chrysalis. In this time they will shed their skin 4 -5 times. They eat like crazy. They can eat commercially prepared food, or thistles, nettles, mallow or plantain that you gather outdoors. We fed ours the commercially prepared food that came with the kit. But we learned that after three generations they can go infertile on this food, and that it is better to feed them fresh food.


Third stage of a butterfly is the pupa. In this stage they form a chrysalis. While inside, they turn themselves into liquid, then reform into a butterfly. This stage lasts for about 10 days.

The natural predictors of a chrysalis is birds, frogs, snakes and lizards. Their defense is remarkably wiggling. I was amazed that they wiggle while they are liquid, but they do it some how.


The last and most delightful stage is the adult butterfly. They can live up to two weeks. They like to drink nectar from flowers and drink juice from orange slices. Our butterflies laid eggs on the orange slices, thinking their caterpillars will have good food.

I'll tell you about these pictures.
This picture is a remarkable picture of a butterfly drinking. To see it's full glory, I invite you to click on the photo. This is my favorite pictures of my butterflies. Mama took the picture of this butterfly drinking nectar out of the dandelion.

I like this butterfly picture because it shows the pollen on the stamens of an apple blossom.


This picture is a lovely picture of a Painted Lady drinking nectar out of the dandelion. To see it in full glory, you can click on the picture. I helped mama take these pictures. I held the dandelion in the light for her.

If you want to know more about how to keep butterflies go here.

CeCe, the Melon Eater

Cece like cantaloupe!

My sister gave her a cantaloupe rind one spring morning. CeCe sniffed it. "
Mmm! It smells good," she said to herself. "I think I will eat just a little bit. No one will really mind. Mmm! I'll eat a little more. This is really good, actually! I like it. I'll eat all of it. Lick. Slurp. Lick. Slurp." Before long she ate every single bit of it.

My sister gave her another one. "Mmm! This smells good too. I'll eat it too. I really like this stuff," she said.

CeCe likes watermelon!

One gray and gloomy evening. My sister was making a watermelon fruit salad. It was a very gray day, and I wasn't very happy, until something happened. My sister carved the initial of my first name in the watermelon rind. It letter on it was red and the rest was rind. She saved off the red so it looked so nice. I convinced her to then make a "C" for CeCe. So I put it out where CeCe was sitting. She sniffed it. "Oh, this smells good she said to herself. Mmm! This does smell good. Let me taste it. No one will really mind. I don't take big bites." Lick! Slurp! Lick! Slurp!

Then something happened. Something was wrong. The "C" on the mellon rind was gone. " Oh, I didn't want that!" CeCe didn't get anymore watermelon because we had to make the fruit salad. The sun came out and it was a nice, happy day.

CeCe Likes Honeydew!

Last night we had a honeydew melon. It was a very good honeydew. CeCe got a rind. She sniffed it. She sniffed it again. It smelled pretty good. She licked it. She slurped. She slurped it again. She said to herself, "Mmm! This is much better then all the melons I've had before. It's juicy. This is absolutely wonderful. I wonder if there is more?" And there was more! She wasn't sure it was the same thing thing though. So she licked it and slurped it, and ate it until it was all gone. But then there were more pieces. And CeCe hasn't had any more melon since then.

CeCe Might Have Kittens!

About a month ago, I noticed CeCe with some other cats. We had heard some yowling calls of male cats. CeCe's abdomen began to get fat. It got fatter and fatter. Pretty soon we were sure that CeCe is going to have kittens. Mama thinks it will be about the end of this month. I can barely wait for CeCe to have kittens. It will be so much fun to have kittens. I hope that I can keep a kitten. It will be fun.

When our cat Windy had kittens, we got to keep two of them. It was so much fun to have kittens. We gave away the rest. I named my cat Licorice. She was very black with nice short hair. Once daddy ran over her accidentally, but she survived. She hid under the table for a long time. We gave her food and water under the table, but finally she came out, and was just as good as ever. Until one day we didn't see her, and we've never seen her since. We don't know what happened to her. I hope that doesn't happen to CeCe's kittens.

There are two of Windy's kittens still alive. One is Stripes. He lives in a barn at my friends house. Muffin is an inside cat. Our neighbor's friend cares for her.

I'll make a post about CeCe's kittens when she has them.

The First Frogs of Spring

I've been looking for frogs, and you wouldn't believe it, but I've found lots! We are are going to have a bountiful froggy year. I want to tell you how much fun it is to have a pet frog in spring. Most of the frogs you find in spring are green. Later in the season they turn a darker green and then turn tan. But some stay green all season.

How to catch a frog. If you have a sprinkler system, you probably have a green box in the ground for the controls. That is where I find my frogs. If you don't have a sprinkler box, I think I have a few tips. Go outside and look around through your garden on green grasses and on lavender bushes or catnip bushes. If that doesn't work, look under things that are laying around, such as rocks, and logs.

I keep my frogs in a 10 gallon fish tank. I can keep more then four frogs in there. Don't feel bad if you don't have a 10 gallon fish tank, other containers would work. Make sure it isn't too small though so they have room to play, and climb. Plant a few plants in it such as some weeds or grass from your garden. I'm sure you and your mom will be glad to get repurpose them.

My frogs crock often, but don't feel bad if your frogs don't crock, because some frogs don't crock often. Girl frogs don't croak, but male frogs do crock at night.

Feed your frog a fly every two days. They like other small bugs too. Put in a water dish that is 2 to 2.5 inches deep. They like to sit in it and drink from it.

How to identify if your frog is a boy or a girl. Hold your frog in your hand and look at it's ears. The ears are a disk shaped brown or silver spot on the side a frog's head. If the ears are bigger then the eyes, it is a girl. But if the ears are smaller then the eyes, it is a boy. At least this is what I have heard.

My male frogs croak the most in a grassy environment.

If you have ever kept a frog or are keeping a frog, I would like to know. Please tell me about it in the comment section.

Kid's Wildflower Contest - Violet Painting

Forest Zoo presents his wildflower painting a violet. At age 8, I am very excited to participate. I can't wait until the votes are counted. I hope you like my painting. To vote go here and follow the directions. Voting will be open until Thursday, March 6, at 6:00 P.M. PST.

How to Make a Pot

Last year Mama got a wooden pot maker. We started making newspaper pots with it to grow seedings in for our garden. Here is how you can make them.

1. Buy a wooden pot maker. Get some newspaper.
2. To make three pots, use one page of newspaper.
3. Cut a 4 inch strip of newspaper.
4. Roll it around your pot maker. Leave some hanging off then. Fold the excess newspaper down over the bottom of your pot maker. Press the top part with the newspaper on it, onto the bottom part. Press and turn.
5. Take it out, and tape up the sides.
6. Put soil in it and plant your seed.
7. Water it and let it grow.
While we were were hearing a story, I decided to make these pots, and grow something, because it is getting close to spring. I got one page of newspaper. I cut it and put it on the pot maker and made three pots. Then I got some soil and a seed package. The seeds are Sweet William Seeds. I like Sweet Williams. They are pretty. I planted two seeds. One on each side of the pot. I put the pot in the window sill.

Sew Crafty Friday - Hearts and Cards

I made pink fleece for CeCe my kitten. I got some fabric scraps. I used a heart pattern Mama had. Then I started sewing away by hand because Mama says I'm not old enough to use a machine yet. It took me 4 days to do it. I made one mistake though. I didn't turn it right side out. So you have to see the edge and stitching, but I don't think CeCe will mind.

I've given it to CeCe and she really likes it. She likes to sit on it, or lay on it, or curl up on it and take a nap.

I made a card for Mama. I wanted to do something with paper because my sister was doing things with paper. I cut out a piece of paper and glued it on another piece of paper. Then I cut out a heart and glued it in the middle. Then I cut out 4 small hearts and glued them on. When Daddy finished reading me a story, I gave it to Mama. She liked it.

Excellent Blog Award

Autumn Grace at Nature's Sanctuary, has given me an amazingly giant E for an Excellent Blog Award. Thank you Autumn Grace. It makes me feel very happy. I really like the big E. It is so much fun! It is my first blog award.

Crocus Hopes

Today Mama and I went outside. We had fun looking for flowers and we found some crocus buds.

The crocus buds were little buds. It was really cold outside. It was really windy too. They didn't have any sign of the flower except the for the bud. We just had a snow on Sunday, and there are still patches of snow in places. Before we found the buds we found the crocus leaves, and then we looked closely and saw the precious little bud that will bring a flower.

Daffodil sprouts. The same time we went outside we went found daffodil sprouts. They were big and green because they had come come up before the crocus. They were tall and wide, but they still had their precious little promise of a flower; they had their leaves. Soon they will have a bud, then the bud will grow taller. It might even grow an inch in a day. I remember last year when we went to church, there was just a bud, and when we came home, there was a flower. I remembered that before the flower bloomed there was just a plain bud on the stem. When the day was over, I went to show Emily Rose, and it had grown an inch. It kept growing about an inch a day.

Narcissus sprouts. The same time we went out, we saw some narcissus sprouts. They weren't even 1/8 of an inch tall, but they were there. They were still yellow. They probably didn't poke out of the ground more then a day ago. They didn't have any sign of them ever having a flower. They were just closed leaves. But soon they will have taller leaves. They grow about the same rate as daffodils. They are so pretty. I think they look like happy children smiling with bright sun around them. They are they are cutest of bulb flowers. They are my favorite. I like how the leaves look. They aren't as dark as daffodils.

Dandelion bud. When we were starting to walk inside. We saw a dandelion bud. It was half open. You could see the yellow petals even. It look cold. Maybe it was shivering. Maybe it had woken up too early, but it still was there. He was probably wondering where his friends the honey bees were to polinate him. But he will wait a while before the honey bees come. There was almost no insects out there at all. We did find a few box elder bugs, but they don't do much polinating.

Queen Cleopatra, The Great!

Patty Cake is our newest cake. We got her from the Humane Society Shelter in the middle of December. It was a special day when you could adopt a cat for free. A nice lady in town paid for all the adoptions that day. Our cat Hunter had been run over by a car. Read about Hunter from my sister's perspective here and Hunter's life and death here, and Hunter and the fish escapade here. He was my sister's cat. My sister was really sad. We needed to get her another cat. I already had CeCe, and my sister wanted a cat of her own once again. I wrote about CeCe on my first post on this blog.

We chose the cat because she was kind of nice. There was another cat that I liked better, that wasn't as skittish. But more people in the family wanted Patty Cake because she was soft and gentle, and needed a home.

We found out that she was first adopted for the Humane Society when she was a wee, tiny kitten, by an elderly lady. That lady kept her for a long time, but got too old to take care of her, so people brought her back to the Humane Society. She had been there for quite a while, and needed a new home.

Actually, her name at that time was P.C. or Precious Cat. But mom couldn't stand a cat being named after a computer. I liked the name P.C. Computer, but I was the only one. We thought about a name for a long time. We finally decided to give her the name Cleopatra, because she carriedherself in a queen-like way. Then we gave her the nickname Patty Cake, which goes with her first name. So really her name is still close to P.C., but we call her Patty Cake.

Patty Cake is a skittish cat. She can get scared easy and run to hide under the closest bed, and she can be cuddly too. But only two people in the house have got to cuddle her though, mama, and my sister.

CeCe likes to tease Patty Cake. She bats at her tail, and even sometimes tries to tell her what to do. If Patty Cake goes on a bed, she tries to get her to go off, by batting at her, even though Patty Cake is 7 years old and CeCe is only 7 months old. CeCe really wants to play with her, but Patty Cake is not agreeable! Patty Cake just wants to take a nap in peace. She yawns and stretches and says, "Good night."

Patty Cat is a cat.
She likes to hide and sleep.
She likes to sleep
and keep
CeCe far away from her.
She eats and sleep and meows a lot,
But now she is getting bolder
And hisses when CeCe gets near,
For she is the queen of the house.
She sits in royal majesty,
on the throne in our carpeted house.

She meows for this,
She meows for that,
She meows to be let in.
And if we don't respond quite quick,
She'll meow again and again.

The Dandelion that Turned Too Many Pages

Mama is hosting a Wildflowers in Winter theme on her blog. I have written a story so that I can participate too. I hope you like it! You can see what others are posting by taking a look at her blog.

The Dandelion that Turned Too Many Pages
By Forest Zoo

Once upon a time there was a dandelion. On New Year’s Morning the little dandelion realized that it was the first of January. So he walked over to his calendar and turned what he thought was a page. Soon he decided to take a nap. He was supposed to take a nap for a few months, but said to himself, “I don’t want to sleep for that long. I want to take a nap for one or two days instead.’

So he snuggled down in his downy pillow. In a few days he woke up and looked at his calendar. He said, “That’s odd. It says it is May. “

His best friend, Billy the Busy Honey Bee, turned the pages of his calendar every month through out spring, hoping that Dandelion would bloom when he saw the page that said May. He bloomed only when the pages said April, May, June, or July. If they didn’t say that, he just went to sleep, until they did say that again.

But when he woke from his nap, the calendar did say May, so he decided to bloom. He said to himself that he must have taken a lot longer nap then he thought he would. So he sent up his lovely yellow flower, Then he noticed that none of his dandelion friends were blooming. He said, “That’s odd, because they usually bloom at the same time. He didn’t see Billy the Honey Bee flying around. He felt the air temperature. It was way colder then it was supposed to be in May. He thought that it might have been an extra long winter and that it hadn’t warmed up yet. Maybe Billy was somewhere else today. But Billy had hundreds of more friends. At least one was flying around in April and May searching for fruit tree blossoms, or dandelions. He scratched his head.
“HMM. That’s odd.” He had never not seen Billy the Bee out, and he had lived for at least five years. He was one of the oldest Dandelions around. He was much older then all the bees in the whole hive.

Before long he felt something oh, so very cold on his bright yellow blossom. He shivered. He shivered again. Right away another fluffy white cold thing land on his blossom. Then another and another followed. They kept falling and falling out of the sky. He wondered what was wrong. Everything was different. Before long everything was white and oh, oh, so cold. He was shivering , shaking and shivering his dandelion teeth. He was now starting to be afraid. He wonder what was happening. He had never experienced this before. He was dumbfounded and didn’t know what to do. He knew that he didn’t get help soon, he was going to die.

“What was that?” It looked something like his friend the fly. He lived up in the sky. The fly looked down at the poor little dandelion. “Why are you out now. It is January 3. It is too cold for flowers. Why don’t you go back to bed and wait for spring?”

But the flower protested. “But my calendar says it is May. Oh, I remember, it was New Year’s Day. Maybe I turned too many pages. Maybe I should go back to bed.

So he went back to bed and slept until Billy the Bee came and turned the page to April, and woke him up.

The End.

Birds on the Deck

Last week I put some sunflower seeds out on deck railing for the birds. Oregon Juncos came and ate it because there was about 2 inches of snow covering the ground. I kept putting little bits of seed out for them, then I put some right down on the deck, and they came and ate there. It was a new thing for the birds to be so close to the house. They were very cautious, but soon more more birds came. There were house finches. They are not ground feeders, so they were very scared. Mom was very happy to get a picture of the house finch because they usually fly away. Then some white crown sparrows (mature and immature) came and took over. I thought they looked pretty, but the house finches were the prettiest because they have a red breast. Every bird really liked the seeds oh, so much.

Sunday was the day it snowed 8 inches. It started out raining and freezing rain. They had fun slipping around on the deck trying to find seeds. Then it started to snow. The snow flakes didn't stick at first, but when they started to stick they really stuck and piled up. Before for long the birds had to dig for their food. They walked over a place where they thought there was seeds, they tried to dig up the seeds with their feet. Only occasionally did one get a seed or two. They got tired of digging so they flew over to the other feeder, under the eves of the house. They don't like it as much. Most of the birds went over to my green feeder hanging from the tree. They like that one better, even though it isn't sheltered.

Sometimes you would see a slate colored juno. They weren't as common as most of the birds on the deck, but they came. Occasionally a morning dove came and scooped up a few seeds. A flicker flew down and pecked at a seed. Even sometimes a goldfinch would come fluttering down and eat a seed, but they liked the thistle feeder the best. They all thought I was a very hospitable man to give them so many seeds. There were so many birds I couldn't count them. No one knows how many birds there were. The birds ate the seeds so fast I had to keep putting them out. The snow is melting, but even now the birds are still coming to eat seeds on the deck.

The Big Snow

Yesterday, it snowed. The flakes were giant, about 1/2" by 1/2". We got two inches and then we went out to play. We went down the hill, and sledded on the hill. Then we went and saw the snow in the creek. We snow in our sled and pulled it up and down the stream. Then we went back up the hill, because we were cold. After a while, we went outside again. By then we had five inches. We went sliding and playing. We decided to build a snow fort, but then we gave up. Then we went inside. We ate our supper, and then we outside. It was eight inches deep now! It was dark when we went out. We played for a while then we went in. We had bedtime stories and went to bed.

I really like the snow. It is really fun to play in the snow. It was the deepest snow in four years. It was fun to sled on the hill and do things with the sled in the snow. The snow was so deep I could even go sliding down the patio steps. Once I even went sliding down the hill, and I had to go climbing back up the hill in the eight inches of snow. It was very hard. The snow was so deep you could even bury yourself in it. I thought the snowflakes were the biggest ones ones I had ever seen. One even seemed to be about 1 inch across. Later, the flakes started getting smaller and smaller. Then we had small flakes for the rest of the day. The weather report says we are supposed to get snow, snow, snow. I'm very excited about the snow and can't wait to play in it again.

We scattered some seed for the little birds and they came and ate it. I might write about them sometime.

My Pet Butterflies

Last summer I found some caterpillars. I put them in my terrarium. I forgot all about them until a few weeks latter when I found a chrysalis in my under the window sill above the terrarium. A few days latter I found a chrysalis in my terrarium. It was puzzling how one got out and one stayed in, but I guess it wasn't very hard for a clever little caterpillar. Then I forgot about the chrysalises until sometime just before Christmas when I saw a butterfly in my terrarium. I was puzzled because it had hatched in the winter. It had snowed just a few days before, so I couldn't let it outside because of the cold. It would probably die immediately, so I left it inside. Before long it took a liking to the Christmas tree. It liked the bright lights and thought they were flowers. It lived a few weeks, and then it died. You can see a photo of it on the Christmas tree on my mom's blog.

After another month had passed, I was doing school and looked over at the window sill. I saw a little tiny butterfly, about 1/8 of a centimeter wide and 1 centimeter long. I thought it was immature and dead. But after school I looked at the window sill. I saw a butterfly that was newly hatched and drying it's wings. Mama took a picture of it, and you can can see it at the top of this post. After a few hours it flew away. I checked on it. It wanted to land on the hot lamps so many times, I was afraid it would burn up, but it had another fate. My cat CeCe liked to chase things. One day when the butterfly was resting by a warm window sill, CeCe attacked her. She tore off part of the wings and butterfly couldn't fly and after a little while it died. It was an European Cabbage Butterfly.

Here are some interesting facts about the European Cabbage Butterfly. It was introduced accidentally in the 1860's near Montreal, Canada. It's caterpillar likes to eat cabbage and broccoli and other plants in the cabbage family. It's wing span is 1 1/8" to 2". Wings are yellowish white with a few black dots. The caterpillar is green and 1 3/8" long. You can find it all over North America.

My Tree Frogs

Last year in March, my friend (a girl) gave me a frog. It was a pacific tree frog. I loved him. I thought he was so much fun. His name was Jay.

Then one day when I was playing outside I found a frog. I thought he was the cutest frog on earth. I decided to name him Swimmy. I took him inside and put him in my terrarium with my other frog. They had a good time together. After a few more days, I was out playing again and I found a frog. He looked almost exactly like Swimmy, but I thought he was a little fatter. I thought his stomach looked like a bathtub, so I called him Tubby. I had fun with Tubby and Swimmy and Jay. I made them a tree loft in the terrarium, and I put a rock and some moss in there too. The frogs liked hiding under it and sitting on it, as you can see in the picture at the top of the page, with my blog title. The frogs liked swimming too. Swimmy and Tubby seemed to like it the best, because Jay was a little bigger them them. Swimmy is the one on top, the other one is Tubby. (Jay isn't in the picture, so you can only guess what he looks like. I didn't take any pictures of Jay.)

Sometimes the frogs sat on each other. I thought that was funny. Sometimes they chased each other. It looked like they were playing tag. Sometimes they got tired and just sat there. Most of the time they were playing. They loved to play. They would climb the wall or swing on the screen ceiling. They put their fingers in the holes and climbed around upside down or swung. They were so much fun. I really liked them.

But then I had to let the free because I thought they would be happier outside. I kept them for just about a month.

CeCe my kitten

I have a little kitten. Her name is CeCe. She is nice. She is a Siamese cat and she likes to play a lot. Sometimes she likes to sit in your lap and purr. Sometimes she likes to explore. She is a cute little tan kitten, but her paws are black. It looks like she accidently dipped her face in chocolate. She was born at our friend's sometime in August. We we were at their house shortly after she was born. I knew she was a nice kitten and that I would like her. She could hardly mew, but she was cute. She fit in the palm of my hand. She was very soft and small. The first time I held her her eyes weren't even open.

We went and picked her up several weeks later. Then she looked quite different. She was a big kitten that could not only walk, but run. She went and hid under the porch. We had quite a time getting her out. She was never brave enough to go that far again, because she was still a timid little kitten. She would run and pounce on leaves. They made a crackling noise. She would then jump backwards and arch her back.

When we took her home she slept in my lap. She was so scared when we got home, and she was very hungry. She ate her supper, and walked back in a corner and fell asleep. The next morning, when we got up we ran to see how she was doing. She wasn't shy anymore. She was exploring. I got a rope and swung it around and she batted at it. Then I hung it up and she played and played with it without stopping. Then she went to sleep.

Now she is bigger. Here eyes are blue. She is very soft. I like CeCe.