The Lucky Moth

Hattie caught a caterpillar and brought it home.  On our way home, we went to Target.  Suddenly we noticed the caterpillar was missing.  I pulled over and frantically searched for her caterpillar.  I couldn't find the stinkin' container.  I was worried we accidentally threw it away at Target.  This also told me that I desperately needed to clean my van.  I drove back to Target and DUG in the trash along with a very sweet Target employee.  Caterpillar, not there.  We went home and I scrubbed Target trash off of me.  I found the caterpillar in the trunk.  Who knows!

Well, the caterpillar made a cocoon that night.  I thought it was dead, but I kept it around (forgot about it) for a while.  I'm not even sure how long it took, but while passing by the "cage", I saw a moth on the side.  Hattie was such an excited and proud momma.  She had no problem releasing the moth into the wild later that night.  That was one eventful caterpillar/moth experience.

Helping

Our Odd Little Trees

I saw an activity for kindergartners on a teacher's blog recently that used strips of green to make a Christmas tree.  It helped them with ordering shortest to longest and adding ornaments that started with different letters of the alphabet.  That was a little simple for second graders, so I modified it.  The students each had 9 strips of paper.  They had to measure them and only use the odd lengths to make a tree.  The tree was made up of 5 (odd) paper strips.  They could only put odd numbers of ornaments.  I had to start limiting the number of ornaments (buttons).  Some were into the 30s before I stopped them.  They had so much fun making "odd little trees."

Oooh, Me, Me!

To help my students learn possessives, I told them that the apostrophe was the person raising their hand to say it was their thing.  They had fun coming up with a sentence about themselves.  They then glued a picture of themselves into the sentence and drew an apostrophe on the raised hand.  They loved it!

Sardines!

Fun in the Park

While all the other adults were watching football (blech!), I took the kids to the park.

 This is all she wants to do.

 "Hurry up Mommy and get up here."

So I did it, and was scared to climb down.  It felt higher than I thought it would.  I sat on the jump off ledge for a while and facebooked until Lydda required me to push her again.

I bravely took the leap and didn't break a single bone.  I have jumping skills.

 I couldn't resist making all of them do it after Hattie climbed on hers.  It is a cool picture.  Only one kid "posed."  Who could it be?

The park wasn't all fun and games.  

Someone was feeling left out.

We then went back to the house to doctor Keagan's leg (biking accident). 

I think overall, we enjoyed it.

The Rock Star

We drove to Texas last weekend to visit my sister.  Keagan's band was having a concert.  

It was just shy of 7 minutes long.  It was worth the drive.  He is a great guitarist, and I love seeing all of them. Lydda held her ears for the full 7 minutes, but didn't let out a single complaint.  Some people may think that it was because she really didn't have time to misbehave, but I think she was thinking of Keagan's feelings and stayed quiet for his performance.  They played "Bad to the Bone" and "Superstitious."  Now everytime Lydda hears "Bad to the Bone" on the movie "Megamind," she hollers, "That's Keagan's song."

No Shave November

Wow, what a big mustache you have?

And the winner is...

Emogene!

The girls' school sold Liberty Cards.  I sold one for each of them, because I insist that we at least participate to help out the school.  If they sold one, they were entered into a drawing to win a scooter and lots of other fun outdoor items.  Emogene's name was drawn for it.  We were in shock.  She was proof that everyone had a chance to win no matter how many they sold.  Now I need to convince her that the scooter is for outdoor use and not a kitchen riding toy.

Trust Me?

One of my children doesn't think I'm the best driver.  Who do you think it is?

The Eyes of Hattie

Well, her eyes aren't terrible and would survive without glasses, but the optometrist wants us to start with them (-.75) to get her used to when she does need them all the time.  She is growing slowly so her eyes are taking longer to get worse.  Good thing!

Our fabulous photographer, Bronwyn Davis, posted our family pics on her blog.  You can see them on her blog The Pretend Photographer .

What was HE doing?

HE was sitting at a table watching US go around and around.

Strength

I'm so glad the bar has a lot of strength too!

She has been banned from doing this again.

After school Joy

A Little Pick Me Up

My Helper

"Erica" wasn't thrilled to help me organize the toy room.

Father's Day Pictures

Eric loved the gift Lydda made for him at school.

Soooooo cute!

Hibatchi Time

 Lydda loves unrolling everyone's silverware and playing with it.  

 It was freezing!

We try not to let him out of the house much.

The food was of course delicious.  It was very entertaining.  Lydda was TERRIFIED.  The fire scared her.  She said, "That fire is annoying.  If you eat fire, it will kill you."

She calmed down, but tensed up every time she thought fire was coming.

Cousins

 Joel wants these awesome stools!

Lydda almost didn't want to come home with me after spending a week with Aunt Kristi and Uncle Joel.  Aunt Kristi filled her week with such splendor, our life seemed absolutely unbearable.

She got her nails done, went to the movies, got a new pair of boots, and went swimming.  I'm sure I'm forgetting something else.  Lydda is ready to go back.

Folding Socks

Please ignore the half clothed Lydda.  She was practicing her twirling for me.  It was amazing.  Also ignore the mess in the background.  We were working on the chaos by folding clothes.  Hattie has such an interesting technique for folding socks.  I had to share.

Then she was done.  Eric was very impressed when he found them in his basket.  

Daddy's Birthday

The Amazing Flying Hattie

The secret to her flying skill is plastic shopping bags.  

You must try this at your home.

She had me convinced that her next attempt was going to be successful.

Fun Mommy Day

Well I've done it again.  I gave them a fun day.  Now they are going to keep expecting fun things from me.  Why do I do this to myself?

We went to a Craft Show.  I even gave them $5 each to spend however they wanted.

That last part was a mistake.  We came home with more stuffed animals, pixie dust that is now all over the kitchen floor, fake purple hair, and stinky horse smells.

They did get to enjoy an army truck for FREE!

 

Lydda was too "scary" to ride the horse.  

I really think that "Mom of the Year" title is in the bag.

Oh wait!  It is totally mine now.  I forgot I took them to the library AND let them have a picnic on the library's FREE lawn.  Does your library charge to use their lawn?  That's what I thought. Ha!

You see Emogene was not into picture time.  She is getting to that age.  Lydda was wondering why I was still holding her drink.  

It was a great Saturday.  Hopefully Daddy can come along on our next fun day.

Pinky the Stingray

I am so relieved we had a shoe to fit Pinky the stingray. 

 I don't know what she would have done with a bare stinger.  She also has on a beautiful outfit.

Who would have thought that B*rbie and Pinky were the same size?

Family Pics Teaser

Ahhhhh!  I am so excited about our family pictures.  We finally went to have pictures taken.  That hasn't been done since Hattie was like two.  Here are a couple of sneak peeks we got from the photographer.  She is Eric's cousin and has lots of talent.

Sorry about all the extras added to the girls' picture.  

I was so excited about it, I forgot to take all the faceb**k mess off.

The Insectarium and Aquarium

We surprised the girls with an end of the year trip to the Insectarium and Aquarium. 

Next time we will know to just do this ten times, and they will think it was the greatest surprise ever.  It would have been a lot cheaper too.

We were sure to drive out lots of people from the elevator before they got to their floor.  The suddenly wanted to take the stairs.

The dung ball was a favorite, as you can tell.

 

Everyone loved touching any insect that was offered.

 

Thank goodness the girls have never experienced a roach infectation in our kitchen. Did that sound believable?  Just kidding, we have not had that problem before.

"Daddy, what is that?"

"It's a cookie."

"No, thaaaat on the cookie."

"It's a part of the cookie."

She loved it!  Crickets and all!

 

Hattie was a good sport and enjoyed her buggy snack.

 

In my opinion, Eric enjoyed it all a little too much.

I did eat a cricket cookie.  Word to the wise, have some type of drink in the other hand when you eat it.  I don't know how it is possible, but those baked, crunchy crickets quickly try to crawl their way back up.

Oh, the butterfly garden.  We spent way tooooooo long in here.  Emogene had a landing very quickly.

Hattie did not.  She was a statue for a long time.  Eric joined her.

She whipped out a red bow they smuggled in from home.  I wouldn't let them wear their only red shirt (school uniform).  They were extra bummed, so they snuck a red bow into Emogene's purse.  It didn't help much.

 

Don't they look like they love each other.

 

So sweet!  I am always in awe of my girls' daddy.  We are so blessed.

As you can guess, I was bringing up the rear. 

Fishy time!  They loved it!

Why yes Hattie!  Go ahead and teach that little 4 year old how to climb on top of the frog.  His mother will love you for it.

The Insectarium and Aquarium caused Lydda to lose the use of her legs.

We will be going back soon.  We bought a membership!