Butterfly Freedom

For Marian’s birthday, she got a butterfly habitat and we sent away for caterpillars.  They arrived several weeks ago and we watched them get bigger and then form crysalids (spelling?) and then Kelly had to pin them inside the habitat (I was afraid I would drop it and good thing because they started flapping all over-which would have freaked me out!). 

Then they “hatched” and we fed them watermelon, orange slices & sugar water.  After a few days of observation and the weather warming up, it was time to set them free

Most of them (10 in all), flew right out but a few needed to be coaxed out with flowers

This one you can see taking flight from Ezra’s flower

National Bike Week

Last week was National Bike Week and we had our first annual Bike-To-Work Day at work.  We had 18 riders, covering about 240 miles!  One guy even rode 32 miles from a downtown area (dodging broken glass, potholes & construction).  We were excited about the turnout.  I actually didn’t ride-I was sick (and very bummed). I did ride the week before & the week after though:)  My commute is about 4 miles (takes 18-23 minutes depending on the bike I use).

we even had cool t-shirts made

Back to the farm

Had a trip to the farm last weekend, Tara was going to be there and Mom wanted us to do a bit of landscaping clean-up for her for Mothers Day so we went for the day.

The cousins playing Hungry, Hungry Hippo-every time they come to visit and my Dad is always trying to get one of us to take it home.  No takers from any of us girls, ever.  Ever wonder why you always see them at garage sales?

Mitchell, at age 14 is now about 6’3″ with a size 15 shoe-he’s basically a giant to the rest of the kids

the giant falls . . .

the clean-up begins, everyone helped

Mom had gloves for all the kids, Alyssa & Ezra carried weeds & twigs down to the creek

and, Tobin wandered off by himself (Kelly took this shot-isn’t it great!)

afterwards, there were trees to climb

and ice cream to eat

Tobin & Kashton don’t really get along too well yet, both bidding for the “cute, littlest” spot in the family and Kash hates having his picture taken, you see his face as he’s trying to excape before I get him:)

and, of course a tractor ride

then, we played kickball

and this is what Tobin looked like on the way home!

Cheesy grin

 Cheesy grin or sweet smile?

He’s been “appropriately” using this smile to get a laugh or when he’s asking to do something he’s not sure we’ll say yes to.  It reminds me of his  “cheeee” smile from 2 years back.  See the blog post from then http://www.trendasblog.com/?p=73

Rainy Day Boys

Did some puddle jumping last week, since it was only slightly misting I brought the camera.  I seriously just love raincoats & rainboots, I don’t however like to buy them-have you priced them new, it’s outrageous!  Both of these were finds at mom-to-mom sales for a couple bucks each (boots too).

They started by throwing sticks into the puddle, not sure why but it is BIG fun

At the end of our walk, we hit the mother load of all sidewalk puddles!

Doesn’t Ez look like a firefighter here . . .

and, I just can’t resist these blue eyes and that silly hair!  I feel like this one belongs in a Lands End catalog!

Someone mentioned to us as we were walking-”what a great way to make a dreary day fun” (or something like that), kids are so good at that, aren’t they!  When do we lose that ability to see good or fun in any situation?  Lord, help me to see the joy (and laughter and fun) in all my circumstances.

All shot with my 40-150mm lens in aperture priority (f3.5-4.5) at 400 ISO (to give me the needed shutter speed of 1/150-1/250)