Mommy

Thought I'd share this picture. I know you all know what I look like but I'm rarely the one in the pictures because I'm almost always the one taking them. This is also one of the few pictures of the kids and I. Tom took it last week on my birthday and somehow got all 3 of us looking cute and at the camera at the same time.

Butterflies

Butterflies have always been a favorite insect around here. Especially since Erin's spring obsession with caterpillars. We even had a caterpillar make a chrysalis in our jar, although nothing came of it.

Before being aware of Erin's butterfly fascination her Noni got her a butterfly "house" that came with an order for live caterpillars. So on Erin's birthday we opened up her butterfly house and sent away for the caterpillars. In waiting Erin kept bringing caterpillars from the yard into the house wanting to put them in her butterfly net.

The caterpillars arrived in small plastic specimen-cup. They were about 1/2 inch long. There was some nutrient on the bottom of the cup so we didn't have to do anything but watch them grow. And grow they did. After 3 or 4 days they had doubled in size. They looked the size of your garden variety caterpillars. After about 10 or so days they all climbed to the top of the cups and made their chrysalis. I'd never really watched it happen but over the period of a day they went from mobile caterpillars to hardened chrysalis.

The top of the cups were lined with paper so after making sure they were securely enveloped in the chrysalis we moved them into the butterfly "house". This meant taking the paper top they had clung to and pining it to the inside of the house. We cleaned off a corner of the piano and set the house where we could watch inside without disturbing too much.

Four mornings later we awoke to find 1 lone butterfly sitting at the bottom of the house. By mid afternoon we had 4. By the end of the next day all 10 butterflies had emerged. The kids are fascinated with watching them. They are painted ladies and have a beautiful orange and black pattern to them. Jeffrey loves to bring a chair up to the piano and just stand and watch them. At this point they are fluttering all around the house. We've put some orange slices on the bottom to feed them and they seem to like it.

We've been really lucky that the cats haven't knocked the whole thing over. That was my greatest fear when looking for a place to put it. I've found both cats stalking the butterflies a few times but never being aggressive in trying to get to them.

So here are a few pictures of our little science experiment. The net to the house makes it pretty difficult to get really good pictures but these give you an idea. The red stains you see on the net are the meiconium which is secreted just after the butterflies emerge. It's just been so much fun to watch the change from caterpillar to butterfly happen right in front of our eyes.

Yes..this is June

I just took these pictures today. That's right. June 16. Not the middle of January. June.

We got nailed with one severe thunderstorm that tossed hail around for about 15 minutes. We were driving home from the gym, and I decided to take the 'long' way around to check the mail. When we pulled in the driveway the skies opened up pouring. I decided that since Jeffrey was sound asleep we'd just wait out the storm in the car.

Well not a minute later small hail started falling. Withing another few minutes it was bigger hail. Erin was actually rather excited, while I was getting a bit nervous. Sitting in the car during a thunderstorm - fine. Sitting in the car during a tornado...not so fine. Anyway we managed to get a call through to Tom and he said that severe thunderstorms were in the area with the possibility of hail (I confirmed that possibility for him) but no tornadoes.

It got loud in the car...really really loud. Erin sat in the back seat covering her ears. I tried to keep myself calm while watching things begin to swirl around outside. The winds picked up and broken leaves began swirling around.

When it all slowed down I made a dash for the basement door, ran back to get Erin from the car, and eventually Jeffrey - who was amazingly still asleep. We surveyed the damage. So far I've not found any structural damage (not even dents on the car...which sounded like it was being bombarded with frozen grapefruit). The stoop outside the front door had 6" of hail piled up. The hail was all about 1/2" to 3/4" in diameter. Unfortunately EVERY plant was destroyed. We were just getting flowers on the tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchini. They are all now totally flattened. Their stems and leaves were literally shattered.

I'm really glad we were at least in the driveway and not stuck out on the road somewhere. And plants are replaceable. But the power of the storm is something that Erin and I are unlikely to forget any time soon.

Our First Camping Adventure

For Father's Day, Tom wanted to go camping for a night. He mentioned it to the kids earlier in the Spring and Erin has been super excited about it for weeks. I'm not sure she understood really what camping was about, but she was definitely ready to give it a try.

We got to our tent site a little after noon. We decided not to go too far for our first trip so we just picked a campground up in the Shenandoah about 30 minutes away. Tom and I had practiced setting up the tent last weekend so we knew what we were doing when we got there. On the drive, Jeffrey had fallen asleep in his car seat so Erin and I cleared an area of the site for the tent while Tom unpacked everything from the car. After Tom and I got the tent up, with a little help from the kids (Jeffrey had woken up about 15 minutes after we got there) we encountered our first camping "issue."

Bugs. Yep little gnats around faces. Both kids, Jeffrey especially, would just stand there and scream about "All The Bugs", "Make Them Go Away". I brought some OFF which I sprayed into my hands and rubbed around their necks and faces. That helped somewhat. At least enough to create a placebo effect.

I Do NOT Like Bugs

After setting up Erin's little dome tent and having lesson 2 - PLEASE DO NOT just get in and out and in and out and in and out of the tents. If you leave them open the bugs will get in there too. So if you want to get in, that's fine but you need to stay in there for a while - we set out lunch. We'd packed sandwiches, chips, grapes and some gorp (lesson 3 - ju ju fish are NOT good in gorp). We had a nice lunch at the picnic table, although we still had to bribe Erin to finish her sandwich.

Fun in the Tent

We decided to take a walk and go exploring after lunch. We made sure to toss all the clothes and sleeping supplies in the big tent and the food back in the car (have to beware of bears). We headed out on our hike. We followed a long paved path down to the nearby visitor's center (about 1 mile). We talked about the ferns on the ground, picked up sticks, fell down and scraped knees (well at least Jeffrey - lesson 4 keep Cars band-aids on my person at all times), climbed on rocks, and spotted a deer in the woods across the road. We got to the Visitor's Center just in time as the storm that had been rumbling around us for 30 minutes opened up right on top of us.


We stayed out the storm for about an hour. Near the end, while Tom and Erin were checking out part of a Jr. Ranger program, Jeffrey and I sat by a huge windowed wall that looked over the nearby meadow (a meadow on top of a mountain is pretty cool). We spotted several deer who'd emerged after the rain. Then Jeffrey pointed out a Mommy, daddy and baby deer. He was right, there was a fawn with one of the other deer. We watched them wander around the meadow for a while. One of the rangers even lent us her binoculars so we could get a closer look at the fawn.


When Tom and Erin finished with the program, the sun was coming back out. We crossed the main road and started walking an access road through the meadow. We spotted probably close to 15 different deer across the meadow. They are very comfortable around humans. A few crossed the road right in front of us no more than 15 feet away. The kids thought that the deer were just fascinating. Tom was also able to show them deer tracks in the gravel road and Erin spent the next 15 minutes staring at the road, tripping over her feet, looking for more tracks.

One of the Many Deer We Saw

Checking Out Deer Tracks

After walking about 3/4 of a mile we decided to turn back. We got on the main path back to the campsite. Both kids were a little cranky, and Erin insisted on carrying this stick almost as tall as she was. About 1/2 a mile from the campsite we noticed a fog rolling down the road...literally. It's something neither Tom nor I had experienced before, but we were quickly engulfed in a thick fog (OK we're in the mountains..it was a cloud). Everything changed. The sounds deadened. The kids quieted. The smells changed. And then......

...It POURED (lesson 5 - when walking into a cloud in the mountains it means walk faster it's going to pour). Erin and I sprinted for the ranger station which was only a few hundred yards away. Tom tried to get Jeffrey to run, but he wouldn't. He just walked along, SCREAMING and SOBBING getting more and more soaked with every second. We stopped outside the campground ranger station to wait out this second deluge. I'd guess we were standing for 15 to 20 minutes. One of the rangers nicely let us borrow her poncho to use as a tarp to keep the rain from blowing on us.

Once it slowed down again we made for the campsite. What we found met our biggest fears. Everything was soaked. The tent was simply unable to withstand 2 torrential downpours in 2 hours and had about 6 inches of water on the "lower" side. Erin's little tent made out somewhat better but still was wet. Unfortunately, we'd decided to store all our things "IN" the tent so they were also soaked. That means sleeping bags, clothes, books (including a library book and several of the kids books) etc... Needless to say we had no choice but to pack everything up and head back down the mountain. Lesson 6 - Until you're certain the tent is waterproof if it looks like it's gonna rain...store stuff in the car.

Wet, Going Home and NOT Happy About It

Erin stood in the middle of the campsite sobbing that she really wanted to camp. Jeffrey ran around and jumped in every mud puddle he could find (as long as the rain was not coming down he had no issues with being wet). It took Tom and I about 20 minutes to get everything taken down and packed back up into the car.


We got back home a little after 6 PM. The kids got into some dry clothes while I took a hairdryer to the library book (all 490 pages of it). Tom got out the dinner we were going to make at the campsite and cooked it up. Needless to say everyone was pretty beat. After a hot shower and some down time in front of the Food Network everyone was ready for bed.

The First Night "Camping" (I count 7 aminals and 4 blankets in bed with him)

So this morning we're going to look into either resealing the seams in the tent or getting a new tent so we can try camping again in a few months. Maybe after thunderstorm season has passed.

Who Needs a Pool?

Summer is here...without even a sign of Spring it feels like. We've been up in the 90s the past few days and I've had to resign myself to shutting the windows and turning on the AC.


We haven't tested the lake yet. I can't imagine it's that warm yet, but maybe it is. Since we don't have a pool, flat space for a little pool or even a sprinkler I "punted" yesterday. I got out the garden hose, a large 5 gallon bucket, a couple of water squirters and filled the water table. Toss in a couple of kids in swimming suits and you've got an afternoon of fun.

They had an awesome time. We'd run in the hose for a few minutes - we meaning I was holding the hose - I'd make sure the bucket was filled with water for the squirters too. Then they'd play for a while with the squirters and rotate back up to the water table. Once they got a little warm we'd recycle the whole process. I did my bestest to stay dry...Erin did her best to make sure I didn't. I certainly met the wet end of the water squirter a few times.


Jeffrey did get himself in a bit of trouble by deciding to turn the water table into a wading pool. I'm actually amazed it didn't collapse under him. I tried really really hard not to laugh, but I just couldn't. As soon as he saw that he knew he might be in some trouble...but nothing major. And since I had the camera nearby I just had to get a shot and video of it.

It was so great to see them having so much fun with simple stuff. No fancy inflatable water slides. No in-ground pool (but let me tell you the next house we get....). Not even a sprinkler. That's the way an afternoon of fun should go.

Early Birds

Don't they realize there's no worm to be had? Here in good ole S'ville there's no prize for getting up early. But Erin and Jeff seem to have decided that they are going to become Early Birds. For the past several weeks they've been waking up at the crack of dawn (at least it feels that way to me). They've been getting up between 6 and 6:30. Going down to daddy, who's desperately trying to get out of the house for work, and demanding breakfast at 6:30. If he has a few seconds he'll open a couple of cereal bars or nuke 2 bowls of oatmeal, but he doesn't always have the time.

I'm not sure which one of the two started this trend. I think it's Jeffrey. Generally I hear him moving around first. He'll go into Erin's room to play and inevitable wake her up. This spring we'd been having issues with Jeffrey waking up in the middle of the night and coming into our room. So I started explaining to him that he can't get out of bed until the sun is up. Well, the sun is getting up earlier and earlier. Before I know it, Jeffrey's going to be waking up at 5.

I - not being a morning person try to milk as much time from them as possible. If I can hear them playing in their rooms I'll doze for another hour or so. Sometimes I'll just listen to them playing. It seems that these morning play-dates are something special though. There's rarely any arguing. I hear a lot about taking turns, sharing, and playing together. Sometimes Erin will "read" Jeffrey stories. And this morning I even heard her ask him to read to her on the potty...which he did with great pleasure. Generally by the time I'm up and moving, their rooms are disasters - toys, dolls, blocks, books, dress-up clothes are everywhere. One toy box is generally empty because it's a great place to hide for hide & seek. But their imaginations are running wild and the special sibling bond is strengthening.

So while I'm not at all a fan of this new trend in waking hours. The time they are spending playing together makes it worthwhile. So while the schedule is morphing to include earlier nap for a while, I think we can manage it. I guess that's what brothers and sisters are for. Maybe there is a worm after all.