Once again a walk turns into nature study

The girls and I walked to pick up Joe today and as we passed this one bush I saw a ladybug on it.  Hannah wanted to "have" it so we started looking for one for Grace.  We finally did find another one but we also found tons of ladybug larvae.  I would never have recognized it as ladybug larvae if we hadn't raised ladybugs around this time last year.  For her birthday Grace got a ladybug house and a coupon for some ladybug larvae.  It was fascinating to watch them change into ladybugs.  The larvae are about 3 times as long as a ladybug and are red and black.  When they are ready they kind of curl up and form a shell that eventually a ladybug comes out of.  On this bush today we saw ladybug larvae as well as the chrysalis/shell thingy.  It will be fun to check this bush a few times a week and see how our ladybugs are doing.  You know I will be marking this down in our plans as nature study for the week.  :0)