memorial day

We’ve been really busy this past week, getting things done, going places with G, and enjoying having him home.  We had a busy Memorial Day weekend, and I have lots of pictures to go through and post.

Here’s just a couple from today.  We enjoyed the annual Memorial Day parade with some of our friends, and Kait walked in it with her Girl Scout troop.  The little girls wore their little bandana dresses and looked too cute.

And . . . of course Memorial Day is the first day of summer (in theory–Kait still has two more weeks of school!), so we broke in our new pool.

Here’s to hoping that the weather is finally warming up and we can use our wading pool a lot in the future.

More pictures coming soon.

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don’t forget to write

So here’s a few pics from the great butterfly release.

Rose was VERY sad to say goodbye to our little friends.  Even now, almost a week later, she still talks about wanting them to come home and drink their nectar from our oranges.

Almost there, little lady.  Fly free and go find your place in this big, wide world (for your very brief two-week life span).

One little lady was quite reluctant to go out into the world.  Aunt Mel helped her along.  The girls all waved and called out their goodbyes as each of our five butterflies took to the air.  I thought we might see them around for a day or so, but nope, once they were free from their cage, they disappeared for good.

We had fun “raising” butterflies and will certainly give it a try again, but I don’t really care about that right now because all I can think about is that my man is in an airplane headed home to us right now.  Allllllllllllll of the Austin girls are excited to see our favorite guy in the world!!!  Just a few more hours now.

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bye-bye butterflies

Remember this?

Kait received some caterpillars as part of her Easter gift.  We were all excited to watch them grow

and grow and GROW.  Seriously, people, that Eric Carle knew what he was writing about in The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  Don’t worry, we didn’t feed our five little guys the same food that Eric’s ate, but ours grew JUST as quickly.  The teacher in me was quite interested in the process.

It wasn’t long until they formed their chrysalis.  I watched it happen right before my eyes, and it was one of the weirdest things I’ve ever seen.

It took about 8-9 days for them to transform and begin busting their way out to try out their wings.

We fed them sugar water for a couple of days, and then when the weather turned cold again we had to keep them with us for several more days than we expected, so they feasted on orange slices.

We finally let them go a couple of days ago.  One of the Austin ladies wasn’t too happy about that.  She was quite attached, apparently.  Sniff, sniff.  More pics coming soon.

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a play and an art show

One of Kait’s dreams recently came true.  In all her three years of school, she’s been dreaming of having some of her art work on display for all to see.  It happened once with a project she made last summer, but we were unable to make that art show because we were out of town.  A few days ago, we were able to go see some of her work at the annual spring art show in our district.

She is (and we are) quite proud of her clay bird and bird nest with eggs.  Looking forward to having it sit on our windowsill soon.

She also had a speaking role in the second grade musical, “Country Mouse, City Mouse”.  Daddy was sorry to miss her first big performance on stage, but Grandma and the girls and I were there to cheer her on.

There’s our little Country Mouse with her class.

She’s in the middle with the cut-off shorts.

I tried to convince her to wear her holey jeans instead, but it was 80 degrees that day and she insisted that the country mouse wears cut-off shorts when it’s hot outside.

Great job, Kait!

Also, Aunt Mel arrived for a fun long weekend, and we are going to be saying a HUGE thank you to Grandpa for sharing Grandma with us for so long and another ENORMOUS thank you to Grandma for doing our laundry every. single. day. as well as helping with everything else.  Can’t thank you enough!!

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plumbers for hire

As you know, G is in Kenya right now (he’s doing well and they are having a great trip!), and his very gracious mom flew in to help me with the girls for most of the time he is gone.  We’ve been busy and are having lots of fun trying to keep our cooped-up/cabin- fevered little ones entertained until the weather warms up and dries out again.

One unexpected challenge that popped up right away was a problem with our shower.  It went from a normal, nice shower to a trickle within minutes.  After a phone consultation with G’s dad, we tried a few things, went to two hardware stores, made a purchase, took the old shower head apart, soaked it in vinegar just in case it was plugged (it wasn’t), figured out a teeny, tiny little part inside of the head was broken, installed a new shower head, and felt quite proud that these two Austin women diagnosed the issue and repaired the problem on our own.  Seriously, we were VERY proud of ourselves.

We had to use tools and everything.

Ta-dah!!

(And, no, I’m not a giant who has to bend over the shower.  I was balancing precariously on the edge of the tub to showcase our work.)

Oh. So. glad. we were able to figure this out!

So . . . if you have an issue exactly like this one, feel free to give the Austin girls a call.  We’ll be delighted to swing by and help you out.  We know how important a good shower can be.

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spring . . .

I thought you were here for good.  We had some glorious days, didn’t we?  Sweaty, sandy, dirty, happy kids, thrilled to be out in the sunshine.  Tomatoes and cucumbers and some of the flowers planted.  My FAVORITE wind chime from Kitengela Glass in Nairobi, Kenya, hung and singing with the rustle of the breeze.

Oh well.  Spring, my weather man declares that you will return, yet again, in a few more days.

Until then, I’ll bring out my long sleeves, jeans, and jackets yet again.

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There have been a couple of questions about what Kait has been working on weaving, and I just wanted to let you know that I’ll post more about it when it’s finished, probably this week!  It’s been a VERY fun project that I highly recommend.

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kait, weaving

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little ones, biking

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rose, napping

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pendo, reading

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