Beginnings, Endings, and Trying Again

Our back yard has a new beginning!  Scott worked hard at growing grass and now our yard is green.  There are a few bare places, but he has a plan for filling them in next spring.  

 The kids have been enjoying the sand box more now.  They like to walk through the soft grass to get to the sand box and then squish their feet in the soft powdery sand.  The back yard is now a giant playroom!

I told Scott all I need back there now is a bigger deck with a few benches.  There's always something...  Poor guy, the honey do list never ends!  But really, that grass!  Didn't he do a great job!!

Soccer season has come to an end.  The kids had fun and learned a lot.  Luke got to have his daddy as his coach.  His favorite position was goalie. 

He didn't play goalie all the time though.  (Parents really get into it at this age!  I was sitting by the other team's parents because I ran into someone I went to high school with that I hadn't seen since then). Luke is the one on the green team with the red sleeves. He was so excited his team scored a goal!

Addy did a great job this year too.  She was a little intimidated playing with some big boys that were kind of rough, but she's quick and smart.  Those parents...

We found some caterpillars again.  This time they don't have stinging spikes!  They are black swallowtail caterpillars and they turn in to beautiful butterflies.  We found them on carrot tops in my grandma's garden.  So we thought we would try again and try to follow the life cycle.  I probably don't have the best habitat set up for them, but the last caterpillar (the one with the stinging spikes)  chewed through the netting in our bug cage. 

Only 1 in 10 of these make it to be a butterfly anyway, so if these guys don't live it might not even be our fault!  That makes us feel better.  We are still learning a lot watching them crawl around.  And it was fun to draw and color them.  

The Teething Kids

 

 Addy has lost 3 teeth in the past 2 weeks.  Two on top and one on bottom.  I'm glad her first permanent tooth on top came in, she is having a tough time eating a few things.  It is quite humorous to watch her try to eat apples and meat.

 

And our little Clo bo has two little pearly whites on the bottom.  No one ever sees them except me when she is getting ready to eat!  She doesn't smile wide enough for other people to see.  She did smile long enough for me to get a picture of her though!

 



 

We caught some caterpillars the other day.  The kids are looking at them closely so they can draw them.  We are hoping to keep them alive long enough to watch them turn into a butterfly.  We put some lettuce in the cage and they devoured it! 

 

 

*Caterpillar Update:  We added another cool looking caterpillar that we found to the mix.  It was lime green with spiky clusters of fur and a burgundy stripe and white stripe down the side.  We found out it was an IO Caterpillar and they STING!  I picked him up and put him in the cage and he didn't sting me.  I guess I was lucky.  The next morning we went out to check on the caterpillars and found that ther was a hole in the netting that one of the caterpillars chewed through and they had escaped.  All except the one that went into a cocoon that night.  I am sure the IO caterpillar is the one that chewed through the netting and ruined our bug cage:(  Evil caterpillar... Oh well, it was a great lesson and at least we still have a cocoon to watch.  We needed a new cage anyway, the door was already broken, and it has housed many bugs.