~Butterflies~

Out of five caterpillars, we ave four butterflies!

(the last one just may hatch soon... it was the last one to form a chrysalis)

I gave them some watermelon and sugar water, but I really wanted to get them outside.  Nathan was the most sad about this... he wanted to keep them forever☺

 In Eric's hand

 In Nathan's hand

 With Kiersten

One of the butterflies doesn't seem to be able to fly... that is why we were able to hold it for so long.  The others flew away rather quickly.

I put the butterfly on a flower from our butterfly bush.  We were able to watch it eat!  That was so cool!

My camera battery died... so I didn't get a close up picture of that.

It was a very neat experience!  Too bad the caterpillars are so expensive to buy.  It is actually cheaper to buy the whole set than it is to just by the caterpillars.

~The No Race Race~

This was supposed to be our weekend off.

One of our big local tracks invited the quarter midgets to run an Expo on their track and, of course, my guys wanted to go.  They worked hard on changing their cars... different motors, different gears etc.  It rained in the afternoon but they got the track ready for racing anyway.  After all the big cars warmed up, they let the quarter midgets out.  I think they did 4 laps... Jared actually looked fast out there!

Some more rain came before the heats were even over.  Then a big thunder shower hit... that is when I left.  The guys got the word that they would be running everything on Sunday.  It was a bummer because Aaron was starting on the pole... and we don't race on Sunday's.  We were really hoping they would move it to Monday.

Oh, well.  That is life.  They are glad they at least got to run the cars a little.  We will try again next year.

~Mini Golf~

I was able to go out with the teens last Friday night.  We played some mini golf and ate some ice cream.  I wasn't going to eat any, but they were serving fresh peaches on vanilla!  I couldn't pass up fresh peaches!

We broke up into groups of 3 and 4 for the mini golf.  I ended up with these two clowns...

I am fairly certain our group had the most fun.  We were certainly not serious.  We did end up with some of the best scores of the night.  That may or may not be because our highest number of swings was 4 and everyone else played to 6.

~Birthday Girl~

The first gifts were opened before her eyes were awake!

Nathan made sure she had something to open

(I hadn't gotten our things wrapped yet!)

Nathan got this fish as a VBS prize... he hid it to save it for her birthday.

She was thankful ☺

After breakfast and chores I had the rest of her gifts wrapped.

She was soooo excited!  You should have heard the giggles!

She wanted a black violin... with a case.

I ordered this cute outfit online.

She added the splash of orange ♥

She spent all day playing.  She was being fairly gentle.  It is 1/8 scale and it really does work!

I also got her a weaving kit... I thought we could do that together.  

Nathan found her a pink baseball glove at a thrift store and a box of beads and pompoms.

What a fun little girl!

~Out with the Old and in with the New~

Our oven broke again... this time it was out of warranty.

Our refrigerator was too small for our always hungry family.

Gregg has been searching for a good deal for a few months now.  (No oven for the summer isn't too bad, but I am anxious to start baking again!)  He found a great online deal!  Both items were delivered last Tuesday.

The new fridge is sooo much bigger!  I got groceries and they all fit in... I didn't have to squish anything or have anyone quick eat something that wouldn't fit ☺

I like the new oven too.  This one has two ovens just like my last one, but this little oven is a little bigger.  That is great!  It also is a convection oven!

I'll be busy wiping finger prints off all my stainless steel now!

~September~

~Butterflies~

I asked for butterflies... I can't remember now if I got them for my birthday or Christmas, but my guys got me a net and a mail in coupon for 5 caterpillars.

I finally remembered to order them a few weeks ago.  They arrived on Thursday.  I wasn't sure if they were dead or alive!  They don't move very much! 

Friday

I can tell they are eating though! The food at the bottom is certainly being eaten.  Within three days you could tell they had grown too!  I can't wait to watch them!!!

Monday