the hungry little silkworms . . .

Steve and Chris kept silkworms when they were kids, and Steve being Steve, he managed to get onto the subject of them with a customer who said there were plenty of them on her mulberry tree at the moment and he was welcome to take some. Of course he jumped at the chance and came home very excited with them a few weeks ago . . .

first few days . . .

tiny little bubba worms

3 weeks later . . . 

a LOT fatter after eating their way through bags of mulberry leaves

and the first few cocoons are spun. . .

 2 weeks later and we have moths . . .
. . . now 2 weeks is a long time when you're 5. Austin would diligently check his shoebox every morning as soon as he got up and about another 20 times during the day, so very impatient for those moths to hatch . . .

well it eventually happened and it was the cutest thing ever . . . he came running through to me, so excited he could hardly get the words out "mummy mummy you are NOT going to believe this, it's unbelievable, quick come look". Too cute.

 smug little smile showing Daddy when he got home from work

1 week later and the mummy & daddy moths get it together . . .

 fascinated with watching them make babies

and another week later the cycle is complete . . .

 we have silkworm eggs, and lots of dead moths of course

 carefully putting away the eggs till next year . . . now where are they going to be kept till then I wonder . . . somehow I think they might get thrown out by mummy by 'accident'