Monarchs from caterpillar to butterfly

Here are pictures that I took of our Monarchs in various stages. A few more follow this post and for even more please click this link http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=33257&l=e6f87&id=664742832 to view my photo album on facebook. Those pictures show even more stages in the process.

Wednesday August 20, 2008

We've been having another busy week. Summer break is almost over and now it seems to be going by really quickly!

Last Thursday, My Mother and Father-in-law came to visit us. Actually, they were'nt just coming to visit. They bought a little house around the corner from us to use as a "cabin" when they come to visit. They just closed on it and came up to fix it up and move some stuff in. I think it's exciting having a place like that. I hope someday we will have a little cabin somewhere to vacation at. They've been buying furniture and other things that they need to make it comfortable. My sister-in-law has been helping them a lot with the cleaning and she is doing some painting there. She's a good decorator and loves doing that, so they are letting her help with that. I think they will come up to visit us a lot more often now, and probably stay longer. It will be really nice to have them around more, especially for the kids.

VBS has been going well. I'm only at the nursery end of it, but that has been going good. It's 3 hours long each Wednesday night though and so it gets a little boring I think being in the same place with the same toys for that long. Tonight I am taking some new things for them to do. I bought a craft to make with them and we are going to make cereal necklaces. I think they will have fun. It has been nice getting to chat with the other ladies working in there with me too. We only have 2 more weeks, tonight and next Wednesday. After that, I'll have a one week break before AWANA starts. I'm excited about that too. Tim and I are trying to get everything organized for it. Our friend and fellow Cubbie Leader, Barb, has also been printing off things we need and organizing stuff for Cubbies. I hope we have a great year.

The kids have been playing a lot in the little pool that I bought for them. Today they have their friend, Sheyanne over playing with them.

Well, I guess that's all for now. Have a great day everyone! :)

Monarch Butterlies

Recently, the kids and I collected 3 Monarch caterpillars from our yard. We put them in jars with holes in the lid and gave them new milkweed leaves to eat each day. They are all in the chrysalis stage now. We've collected them a lot in the past, probably 10 of them last summer. We have always missed seeing them actually make the chrysalis though. They are so quick! You'll see the caterpillar hanging upside down one minute and then seconds later you'll look at it again and it will be in a chrysalis! Yesterday we finally caught one in the act and I got a quick picture before it was fully covered. It looked like it was pulling a sleeping bag up over itself and as it pulls it up, it sheds a layer of it's skin. I am still not exactly sure where the "sleeping bag" comes from. It seems to magically appear. :) It's so awesome to me that the resulting Monarch butterfly will look nothing at all like this striped caterpillar. The caterpillar is bright yellow, black, and white. The butterfly will be black and dark orange. The shape of it's body will be different. It's head will be different. It will be able to fly!!! The chrysalis itself is so beautiful with it's little drops of gold. It looks like a jewel. I just think it's one of the coolest things! God is so AWESOME! His nature amazes me! Here are the pictures I have taken so far. I hope to take a couple more as it is about to hatch and when it's all ready to fly away.

Clouds

I have really been enjoying the blue skies lately, filled with fluffy white clouds of various sizes and shapes. I'm truly amazed at how God paints each day's sky different than before. I love how He uses any colors that he desires. Sometimes the sky is blue. I've seen it yellow, pink, orange, purple and even reddish. I love how the clouds can look so different. They can be fluffy, stretched out, splotchy, big, or little. I often thank God for making the sky so beautiful. I feel like He knows that I notice it and he paints it so beautiful just for me. :)

The other day I looked out and the sky just looked like something was going on up there. It felt to me like the cloud were doing a "firework" show because there were so many different kinds going in different directions. I guess some of the white streaks are airplane trails, but anyway, I thought this sky looked Awesome and as usual, I had my camera nearby.

Go-Carts and Bumper Boats

After we played Miniature Golf, Tim and the kids went on go-carts and bumper boats. Here are some pictures from that.

Here is Tim and Emily (She's beside him)

Here is Clara racing around the track

Allison, Clara, Ben, and Tim

Here's Emily on the way home. I guess we wiped her out. :)

Miniature Golfing

Yesterday we took the kids miniature golfing. Allison is the only one (besides Tim and I) who had done it before. We all had a really good time there. Here are some pictures from the day.

8-8-08

The eighth day of the eighth month of the eighth year of 2000. :) (I wish I were posting at 8:08pm) :)

I was at the store today and a lady was saying that her friend had a baby today. She said it weighed 8 pounds 7 ounces. One ounce off from being 8lbs 8oz born on 8-8-08 Still kind of cool though.

We've been pretty busy the past few days. VBS was on Wednesday night. That's going really well. I've been helping in the nursery. It's fun to see all the little kids playing and to visit with the other Moms working in there. This Wednesday we had only 7 kids (2 of which were mine) and 6 adults. :)

Yesterday (Thursday) we went to the reading program at the library. This time there was a nutritionist there telling the kids about eating right and exercising. She had them play a scavenger type exercise game outside and they had fun doing that.

My kids have really been wanting to go swimming. I wanted to take them yesterday but then it was kind of cool, cloudy, and windy. They begged and begged so I drove them about 20 minutes to the lake. As soon as we pulled in and parked and as soon as I turned the key to turn the van off, Rain started pouring down! They still wanted to swim, but I didn't want them too. I told them if we got home and it wasn't thundering and lighteninging (probably not a word, but you know what I mean) then they could play in the rain. Of course, by the time we got back home it wasn't raining anymore. They decided to go outside anyways and play in the water hose. :)

Tonight the kids and I dropped Allison off with the Youth Group to go miniature golfing. We had about 3 hours until we had to pick her back up, so we went out to dinner and then grocery shopping. We bought a small pool that was on clearance for $38.00 . It's 30 inches deep with an 8 foot diameter, but it will be big enough to cool off in and bigger than the wading pool they've been playing in.

Tim has the weekend off from work. (Sometimes he works on Saturdays). I'm hoping to do some cleaning around the house and maybe sorting through things to reorganize and get rid of some stuff. I need to clean the van out too. Hopefully I will get that stuff done or at least get some of it done.

I've been enjoying the blue skies and white fluffy clouds lately. I had to take a picture of them today. So here it is.


I hope everyone has a great weekend! :)

Tuesday August 5, 2008

Tim had the day off yesterday. Tim, the kids, and I went to Church and sorted through stuff for Cubbies. We also went to Walmart and Allison got her hunting licenses for the year. :) We took some back roads on the way home, just for a little change in scenery. We saw a blue racer snake slithering accross the road and up into the woods. We also came upon this deer in a swamp. I thought it was so cool, so I told Tim to take a picture of it. I love how you can see the reflection in the water.

Last night, my parents watched the kids so that Tim and I could go fishing. We had a nice time on the lake, even though we didn't get any big fish. I caught 1 small mouth bass and Tim caught 2 of them. All three were only about 12 inches long. We were the only ones on the little lake and it was so peaceful and relaxing. I hope we can go again soon. Tim and I don't get enough time together. I keep telling him that he and I need to take a vacation alone at least for a weekend. I can't remember he and I going anywhere alone since our 5 year wedding anniversary; and that was 7 1/2 years ago!!! We have gone out to dinner on our anniversaries and sometimes birthdays; and we go to U of M every 3 or 4 months for his checkups. That's it though, pretty much the only time we get alone. I love spending time with the kids and as a whole family, but it will be nice when the kids start back to school and Tim has Monday's off. Then at least we will have 1 day a week where we can just have fun together like we did when we were younger. I'm excited about that! :)

I might have to do Jury Duty this week. I have to call tonight to see if and what time I have to go. The letter said it was for August 6th, 7th, and 8th. I've never served on a jury before, so I'm really nervous about it.

Well, that's about it for now I guess. Have a great day!

The Past Weekend

Tim had to work Saturday morning. His boss asked him if he wanted to deliver some tools to a customer down state. So Tim came home and swapped vans with me and headed down state along with Allison and Ben. They stayed the night down there with some friends of ours. It was nice because he got to visit with his parents and his uncle while he was down there.

Clara went on a campout with her girlscout troop Saturday. She had a lot of fun! They made flower presses and filled them with plants to dry. They made doughnuts over the camp fire and pizzas too. They went swimming and had a really good time.

So, it was just me and Emily Saturday and Sunday at home. We went to my sister Tricia's house for pretty much the whole day Saturday. She was making a wedding cake and we just hung out with her while she did that. We went with her to deliver the cake too. Then we went out to dinner and back to her place for a while.

We left there around 9:45pm and got back to our house around 10:15pm. I had a hard time sleeping that night because Tim wasn't home. Whenever he's gone, I hear every little noise in the house. :) I finally went to sleep around 2:00am.

Emily and I got up Sunday morning and went to Church. I helped in the Toddler Nursery for both services. After Church Emily and I had lunch and then came home to pick Clara up. Tim and the other kids got home around 7:00pm last night.

Tim bought Allison a bow for deer hunting. She practiced shooting it yesterday and she did a really good job. Tim is pretty sure that she will get us some venison this year. He thinks I could use her bow too, so maybe I'll get one too.

Tim has today off from work. I hope we'll have a good day. I'm not sure if it's going to be sunny or not. It looks a little bit cloudy right now. We may go up to Church and sort through stuff for AWANA. It won't be long and that will be starting up again. I'm looking forward to it. Some of the kids, we only see at AWANA and it will be fun to see them again. I hope we'll get a lot of new kids this year too.

Well, I need to go make breakfast and get the day started. Have a great day everyone!!! :)

My Little Artists

Here are some pictures that the kids have made for me recently.



Allison made this one




Clara did this one


Benjamin drew this person :)


And Emily made this pretty girl :)