Butterflies

Alex got a butterfly habitat and caterpillars for a birthday gift.  It was the coolest present!  The caterpillars came in a little covered cup with food in the bottom.  They ate the food and grew quickly.
Here's what they looked like when we got them.

Here's the progression of how they grew in the cup.

You can see in this next photo that one of the caterpillars has formed a J shape.  That means that it's ready to form a chrysalis.

Here they have formed their chrysalises. 

After hanging there for a couple days we moved the paper they were attached to to the butterfly habitat. They stayed inside for about 8-9 days before they started emerging.  

Once they were all emerged, we fed them slices of oranges and some homemade nectar dripped on flowers.  

Finally it was time to let them go.  We took them to the backyard and let them fly.  It was such a neat thing to watch.  

If you want to watch caterpillars grow into butterflies, you can order a kit at Insect Lore.  You can also buy it on Amazon. 

Abby's First Hair Cut

I had high hopes of letting Abby's hair grow until she told me she was ready to have it cut.  Nope.  Her hair just wasn't growing well.  In fact, my brother called her the Crypt Keeper (Tales from the Crypt) because of her stringy hair!  It was time to get it shaped up!  I called my hair dresser and asked her to just make it look better.  Do what ever needed to be done to make my pretty girl look less like the Keeper!  ha!  Abby was the best at getting a hair cut!  She sat still and smiled and loved it!  

Doesn't it look so much better?!

Thanks Jolene!!

And one of Aubrey because she's so stinkin' adorable!

Alex's birthday

My first born turned 6.  Wow.  It has always been such a cliche to me, and really kind of annoying to me, when people say, "Where did the time go?"  But it's so true.  What happened?  It really seems like he was just 3 and now he's 6?  Anyway, he had about a week long celebration.  It started off at Build a Bear with Grammy.  He picked out a camo bear and dressed him as Batman.  He named him Conner.  It is the softest bear!

The next day was Alex's party day.  He chose to have a bowling party this year.  We went to Andy B's.  It was fun, but WILD!  I may have said a few prayers for Alex's teacher having all those boys in his class together.  :)  

After the bowling party, we had the family back to the house for dinner.  Alex wanted brats, corn on the cob, and broccoli.  We also grilled some burgers.  

On Alex's birthday it snowed!  (Fun fact: it snowed on the day Alex was born too, which was also a Monday.) It snowed so much the kids had another snow day.  It was kind of a disappointment not being able to go to school, but we had fun at home and played board games all day.  He built Legos and we played in the snow.  He even got a baby birthday snowman!  We still went out to dinner.  He wanted the Chinese buffet so we brought some candles and sang there.  

When he finally got to go back to school (3 days later!), he brought Batman donuts to school.  They turned out cute!  Aubrey and I also went to eat lunch with him.  It was fun! 

Papa and Grandma came over and brought Alex a checker board.  It was heart warming to see Papa teach and play checkers with Alex.  What a wonderful birthday! 

Student of the Month

Alex was chosen to be Student of the Month from his class.  His school is a Great Expectations school. Each month they have an expectation they learn and practice.  He was chosen for Honesty.  I didn't think to ask what he did that was so honest to earn him this award!  Nonetheless, I am so extremely proud of him for showing his teacher he is worthy to be chosen as Student of the Month!  Yea Alex!