Fun with GIMP and Kieran!

Rick's Birthday...

We celebrated Rick's 34th birthday yesterday at Nene Orange's house with Aaron and family along with family friend Gail. Rick thoroughly enjoyed the meal of fried chicken and mashed potatoes and we were all happy to follow that up with a mulch-layered chocolate cake- mmmm!

Blowing out the candles ;)

Kieran with his berries and cream- he also had a very large portion of cake ;)

Braydon and Kieran playing with an old keyboard- which Kieran insisted we bring home with us... thanks a lot Nene! ;)

Looking ever-more like a Rother with each passing day :)

Cool kid!

Lovin' on his Nene!

"Soooo big!"

Hamming it up for the camera this morning while playing on the deck...

Our first trip back to the ARC "Little Swimmers" this year... it was soooo much easier and more fun this time around... he has grown up so much!

Camden and Kieran Pool Time!

We went over to Camden's yesterday for an impromptu play date in their pool.

The boys incorporated t-ball toys in their play ;)

A slight disagreement over the wheel-barrel ;)

A little silly rest time after snacks on the "veranda" :)

The Dangers of Butterfly Rearing...

So I "presented" two days ago with a few misshapen red spots on my arm and leg that had a mild burning sensation- similar to a sun burn. From there I developed a few small blisters- again similar to a burn. At first I thought I had a spider bite and a dr. at urgent care prescribed an anti-biotic in case of possible skin necrosis (gross) and then secondary infection. I have been on-line the past two days trying to figure out what I have since there was more than one affected area and no swelling, itch or intense pain (like one might see with a spider bite).
Finally, this morning, I had the "aha!" moment I had been searching for- Phytophotodermatitis caused by contact with wild parsnip! In case you were not aware (and who the hell would be?!)- the "juices" from the wild parsnip plant (which I have been handling recently with my caterpillar rearing) can cause hyper-sensitivity to sun light (I have also been lying out in the sun daily in preparation for our trip to Mexico) and produce burns where ever the parsnip juice touched skin. Duh! Okay- so who the hell would have ever guessed that? Not my urgent care doctor- that's for sure! Not that he wasn't knowledgeable and helpful- but as it turns out, the internet is where I finally got an answer to my medical mystery. Also- the antibiotics prescribed by the doctor can cause photo-sensitivity- so probably should stop taking those huh?

Kind of a creepy chrysalis... alien-like.

It's strange how one cocoon is brown and this one is bright yellow-green.

One of my phytophotodermatitis burns.

Yuck!

The offending plant- pretty isn't it? ;)

On a sunnier note (pun  intended;) the caterpillars are doing great! Two chrysalis formed a couple days ago and the other two caterpillars are getting bigger and fatter all the time- I expect they will begin to form cocoons today or tomorrow. The next time I raise black swallowtails, I will be sure to use more care in handling the wild parsnip plant!