Butterflies

Lately we have been watching the butterfly life cycle.  We started with three caterpillars:  Dragon Ka Kragon, Jen and Nemo.  Nemo unfortunately never grew and never made a chrysalis.  Jen is in her chrysalis right now.  Dragon Ka Kragon just left her chrysalis, but we have some problems.  Her leg and wing on one side of her body are deformed and she really can't fly.  For a period of time we thought she was dead, now it's pretty clear that she is going to be bird bait as soon as she is released.

This has made for some interesting conversations, including genetics, death and  predators.  My little Carter boy wants to fix it and scoured the backyard for butterfly medicine.  He came back with a piece of clover, which we did put into the butterfly garden, but there have not been any miracle fixes as of yet.  He has also discussed making a new wing for our butterfly out of paper and tape.  It's pretty hard to explain to him that this won't fix the butterfly.  

Jen should be leaving her chrysalis any time now, so I'm really hoping we'll get at least one decent butterfly!

Memorial Day Parade

Today we went to a Memorial Day Parade.  We were lucky enough to have Grandma join us, and the kids had a blast.  It was a wonderful parade, the kids were able to see military vehicles, fire engines, police cars, horses, Shriner's cars, motorcycles, bands, the works!  I hope that by taking the kids to events such as these, they realize the importance of honoring our military servicemen.

Dawson's language interpreted:

wee-oo wee-oo = sirens {usually a fire truck or police car}

boom boom = vroom vroom {usually a big truck or tractor} 

Carter wore his cousin Brendan's hand me down military flight suit.  Despite the heat he wore it, and received many compliments and even special candy. 

Baby Dewey stayed on my hip most of the time.  His second favorite word right now is Dewey, so we have decided it's a new nickname.

Our little Roover girl

In the car, Mike told me how cute Ava is at parades.  She is very focused on waving and saying Hi to everyone.

Carter's favorite?  The candy.  But I wouldn't accept this as his favorite, so his second favorite was the Humvee.

Ava's favorite?  The princesses {pageant girls}

Dawson's favorite?  The boom boom's  

Happy Memorial Day!

Happy Memorial Day!

We made sure to start it off right, by grilling out.

Dirt can't hurt. Right?

Yesterday we had a load of dirt delivered for my garden.  You would have thought the kids died and went to dirt heaven.  Seriously, a pile of dirt is the best baby-sitter we could have asked for!

Ava was digging and scooping.

This boy had a ball.  We all know he is a mountain climber, and it was so much fun to have a mountain he was allowed to climb!

Then he started smearing dirt in his hair.

Then some dirt may or may not have been consumed.  Total sensory experience!

Dirt is a boy's best friend.

Hunting Pictures

Hey guys, do you want to go up and play in the woods for awhile?

OF COURSE!  But, we have to get our hunting gear on first.

Mom, these aren't snow boots, they are hunting boots.

Hunting vest, check.  

Nerf blaster, check.

hunting {snow} boots, check.

Another picture from a totally different day.

Mom, come quick, Dawson looks like a cave baby.

What?

Ok, now that makes sense.

Note to self: time to do laundry when husband starts putting baby in 4 year old's shirt.

May Birthdays

Thank you to Meme and Grandpap Bob for the wonderful weekend.  We spent time in Sidney to celebrate all the May birthdays in our family {Meme, Grandpap Bob and Uncle Patrick.} 

Uncle Patrick picked us up an extra special palm tree sprinkler.

After a short walk in Tawawa Park we stopped at Sidney's main attraction:  the big rock.

Cute baby.  But oh so clingy lately.  Not even Daddy can suffice.

Don't worry if you knew Uncle Patrick, you wouldn't be worried about this.

Happy Birthday dear Bob Bob....and Meme....and Uncle Patrick

I love ice cream cones!!

Dawson, I have photographic proof of the fact that you can be happy with people other than me.  Thanks Sara for all your help this weekend!

Just a little boost.

Nana told me a funny story..... Carter came to her and said "Nana, this book ripped, but I didn't do it.  It was just my hand."

Thank you everyone for the wonderful weekend, and Happy Birthday everyone!

A day in the life

I have been meaning to type this out for awhile, but have never gotten around to it.  I wanted to document a "day in the life" at our house.  When they are older, I think I will like to remember how we spent the majority of our time.  This "schedule" is obviously fluid and subject to change, but I also truly believe that children need schedules in their lives to provide stability and predictability.  They thrive on that need to know "what happens next." Even Dawson at only 17 months knows he gets a cup of juice on the couch in the morning, and will run to put his shoes on after lunch or dinner to go outside.  

• 7 am:  Carter and Ava wake up, say good-bye to Mike and settle in on the couch with some juice.  Dawson has been waking up between 7:30 and 8:00.
• 8 am:  Breakfast!  Favorites right now include homemade bread with sunbutter, oatmeal flavored with a maple syrup and a little cocoa powder, ninja {mixed} berries and bananas.  We have also been graphing the weather this month using tally marks and using a ruler to measure the length of our caterpillars, they are about 3 cm now!
• 9 am: Clean up kitchen while kids play, then "morning chores."  We go upstairs and everyone gets dressed, brushes their teeth, cleans up their room and we look at our calendars.  
• 10 am:  Play time!  Our favorites lately have been: doctor, Candyland, dominoes, coloring and cutting, legos and going hunting.  I pretended to surgery on Ava the other day, and so everyone has been cut open lately to fix bones, hearts, you name it!  We regularly have to pack our backpacks and gear up to go black gopher hunting.
• 11 am:  Usually kids are getting hungry at this time so we make lunch.  Usually this consists of some combination of leftovers, sunbutter sandwiches, grilled cheese, carrots and apples.  We are really in a lunch rut.  Does anyone have any suggestions?
• 12 pm:  Outside to play for awhile if it is nice, or I try to do a dance party or something like that to burn a little energy.
• 1 pm:  Reading time.  We all go into Dawson's room and read books from his shelves.  This can last anywhere from half an hour to an hour, depending on Dawson!  
• 2pm:  Rest.  I'll admit it, I regularly lay down with both kids on our bed.  Ava usually falls asleep, but Carter does not.
• 2:30:  Carter and I sneak out of the bedroom while Ava continues to sleep.  Then the two of us read together for awhile.  We also started doing educational computer games.  He is starting to use the touch pad on the lap top really well!
• 4 pm:  Everyone is awake and we eat our snack.  Then more outside time or play time. 
• 5 pm:  Time to make dinner.  Dawson hangs on my leg until I feed him a second snack while we are making dinner and the big kids play.
• 5:45:  Dinner time and Daddy is home!  As soon as we eat, I clean up the kitchen while Mike plays with the kids.  This time of the year they are outside every night.
• 7 pm:  Clean up toy room, then bath, books and bed!
• 8 pm:  Lights out

So I apologize for the boring post.  This is our life, and I'm sure it will change in the fall with Carter in school again.  I've actually really been enjoying this time alone with my three little guys.  It's going to be the last time I won't have to worry about rushing out the door in the morning, getting someone to school.  But for now, this is our life with swimming classes, library excursions and some errand running thrown in.