The Butterfly Release

As part of homeschooling, we hatched butterflies for the second year. This year I went for the budget caterpillars to save a few bucks, which I regret as only half the butterflies made it from caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly. The girls, fortunately, didn't seem to notice and cared only about the butterflies that did hatch. This year the caterpillars also didn't all go through the same stages at the same time, so we had a couple butterflies that hatched almost two weeks ago and one that just hatched a couple days ago. I didn't want them to start laying butterfly eggs in our habitat and have us end up with hundreds of tiny caterpillars all over the place, so today was the day we decided to let them free.

The girls were a little sad to see them go, but I think the thrill of holding them and watching them fly away made up for it.

 BabySlimJim didn't really care. But he's cute and had fun on the slide.

An Epic Sleepover

MiniM.E. and LittleL.G. have been begging to have a sleepover. They always ask when we are already hanging out with friends and it's beyond late and no one has their sleep over stuff and it's time for our friends to go home anyway.

The last time they asked, the moms agreed that June 1st we would schedule the sleepover. But of course, all the moms totally spaced until a couple days ago when MiniM.E. asked, "Mom, when is June first?" to which I blankly replied something to the effect of, "um... I don't know, maybe Friday?"

A fit of excitement followed, the cause of which I still was drawing a blank on... Until the fit ended with chants of "SLEEP-OV-ER! SLEEP-OV-ER!"

And so yesterday we hosted an epic sleepover. Three big girls, one little girl, one one-year-old boy (who only stayed til bedtime) and our baby (who went to sleep before the party even started).

We made tacos:

A fort:

Ice cream sundaes:

And a giant sleeping pile.

It was a late night, but so much fun!

A Surprise Visit from Mrs. O'Shea

MiniM.E. wasn't the biggest fan of going to preschool at the start. Or really, ever. There were lots of tears shed and lots of mornings of begging not to go. Even though once she was there, she always had a good time. But despite the dislike of actually going to preschool, MiniM.E. loved her preschool teacher, Mrs. O'Shea.

Even after her two years of preschool, we still tried to keep in touch and would sometimes get together for coffee at the bookstore.

But then the "worst thing that could ever happen" to MiniM.E. happened: Mrs. O'Shea moved away. There were tears for days.

MiniM.E. and Mrs. O'Shea have been pen pals since she left about a year ago, and MiniM.E. hasn't let a week go by without asking when Mrs. O'Shea is coming to visit.

Mrs. O'Shea did finally come back to visit and she and I decided to surprise MiniM.E. by meeting out for breakfast and a walk.

MiniM.E. was so excited to see one of her most favorite people in the whole world. And it was great to catch up. Maybe next time we'll have to take a road trip to visit her!

Congress Park, Playground and the Beach

Memorial Day Weekend with C & H

We started our weekend together by caravanning back to NY and stopping on the way at a fantastic pizza place where we ordered to go and ate out on the back patio. 

The weather looked pretty terrible Sunday morning so we spent the morning hanging around the house and decided to brave the Great Escape in the afternoon. While it wasn't the most beautiful day to visit, at least it wasn't crowded.

 

Monday we had reservations for a private tour at the Dakota Ridge Llama Farm. Such a fantastic morning and totally worth doing if you are in the area. They also offer treks with llamas for bigger kids.

We got to pet and brush a llama.

 Everyone got to walk Mike, the llama

 
And then we fed him some snacks. 

We thought the baby llamas were super cute and we were allowed to go in and pet and hang out with them!

One of the mama llamas loved kisses.

On the way home we stopped at Stewart's for ice cream and possibly the most memorable part of C & H's visit was the chicken that joined us!

A Quick Trip To NH

Wednesday after all our crazy Wednesday afternoon activities we got into the car and headed to Gram and Grumpy's for a quick trip. Unfortunately poor BabySlimJim woke up from his nap with a high fever (roseola??) but no other symptoms. 

Here he is after his nap on Thursday. Poor little guy.

The girls had a great time here though, lots of jumping on the trampoline, swinging on the swing set, zip lining, hot tubbing, bug finding and baby-pooling. We all even braved the (freezing) cold and jumped in the pool!

The girls tried to get BabySlimJim to play and be happy...

And by today he seems improved and even though he's not back to himself yet we got a few smiles and he seemed to at least enjoy a few things.

Later today we caravan back with C & H who are coming to visit for the rest of the long weekend!