A caterpillar, a yard sale and more!

We added to our collection of caterpillars at our house this weekend.  We found this semi-scary, mostly just interesting looking caterpillar on one of our strawberry plants... 

He seemed to be thoroughly enjoying devouring the leaves on our plant so I broke off the leaf he was munching on before he could do anymore damage and put him and the leaf in a bug finder.  Now he and Wormie are sitting next to each other in their different stages of life.  I am excited for Hannah to compare and contrast their cocoons and their features as they emerge from this process.

I think this is a great learning process for my girls and I was super excited this weekend to visit a neighbor's yard sale and find an activity that related to our adventures raising butterflies/moths.  I hit the jackpot because our neighbor happens to be a teacher and she was getting rid of some teacher "stuff".  I found these brand new life cycle figures...

and a cute book that went along with it...

When I find things like this I think it is meant to be and it was a deal too.  Hannah has enjoyed matching the different figures to the pictures in the book.  Hopefully it will reinforce what we are seeing in our bug finders.  We also found some fun walkie talkies at the yard sale...

Matt and I are in the process of teaching Hannah and Lily the proper lingo for walkie talkie ownership. You know...breaker breaker, over and out, etc :).  I love a good yard sale! It was a great weekend that also included a trip to the rodeo, but that is a post all its own. 

Today was a day filled with all that our Mondays typically include...playing, learning, cleaning and all around recovering from the weekend.  Does anyone else feel that your house stays more orderly during the week than it does on the weekend?  I don't know exactly what happens every Saturday and Sunday but I am always spending part of Monday cleaning it up. 

We did start our day with "school time" today and that included a little bible craft project that I thought was cute.  We started by talking about Psalm 23 "The Lord is my shepherd" and what exactly that meant.  I then traced Hannah and Lily's hands...

cut out what we had traced...

let them glue some cotton balls, an eye and some ribbon on the cut out and voila...

It was a quick and easy project that both Hannah and Lily could do.  I am trying to start our days out this summer with some sort of faith formation activity whether it be a little craft like this or just a simple story from a religious children's book or the Bible.  I can't think of a better way to start out the day!

We also spent some time outside melting in the heat and collecting rocks for our next rock project.  I am finding it really frustrating that the only good time to go outside lately is early morning or late evening with the mosquitos.  We didn't stay out long but at least it was a little fresh air...

I am always thankful for a good start to the week.  Hope yours was good as well.  Be back soon. 

Breaker breaker over and out.

Maple Jones and Wormie

Whenever we go out for walks Hannah and Lily are forever walking at a snail's pace stopping to pick up what sometimes seems like every rock or twig that lines their path.  This week I decided that we should actually use some of the things that they liked to collect and turn them into something fun.  We took a little walk outside before the heat became too unbearable to intentionally collect all the sticks, rocks and leaves their little hands could pick up...

We brought all their findings home and dumped them out on the table...

I grabbed the glue gun and we got to work.  Here is one of our creations...

Her name is Maple Jones according to Hannah and she now sits on the windowsill in our kitchen. She has an apron made from leaves from our bushes, a maple leaf for a hat, rocks for a body, sticks for arms, leaves for feet and a sweetgum ball for head.  We think she's pretty cute!  My favorite part of this project was watching Hannah use her imagination and come up with using these great leaves for Maple's feet and showing me how they also make great bunny ears.  This is a project that I will keep on hand for those days when we are going a little stir crazy in the house and need a little distraction.

We also have a new pet in our house.   She looked like this when she arrived...

 

Her name according to Hannah is Wormie Worm and she is actually a caterpillar.  She arrived at our house attached to a piece of corn in our "vegbox".  We decided to put her in our little bug viewer with her corn and watch her for a few days.  Hannah and Lily thoroughly enjoyed watching her feast on the corn and crawl around the little bug box.  A few days later though we checked on her and she looked like this...

So we are now raising a butterfly.  We have changed her home to include some leaves and a stick, read up on what to do when she emerges and plan on releasing her back outside once she is ready.  It is a really neat process to watch and we are anxiously awaiting Wormie's debut as a beautiful butterfly.

Have a great weekend!

A week of firsts

Whew! We had what seemed like an incredibly busy week of firsts at our house and they all revolved around my favorite little 4 year old daughter.

Hannah had her very first dance class...

her first vacation bible school (complete with a great closing performance)...

and her first swimming lessons...

It was a whirlwind of running from one place to the next trying to get Hannah where she needed to be, not to mention getting Lily to her school and fitting in her naps.  Lily stayed in good spirits all week despite being awakened from her nap most afternoons for Hannah's swim lessons.  She is so ready for her turn to be involved in all of this fun...

I think this might be a glimpse into my future hectic life down the road.  Thank goodness though, for now, life can return to our normal, slightly more relaxed, schedule next week :)

Have a great weekend!

Meeting in the Middle

My sister, Bekah, and her husband of 1 month and 11 days, Hugh, live in newly married wedded bliss in Nashville, TN. 

Nashville is 3 hours away from Birmingham and Birmingham just happens to be where Bekah's favorite older sister lives. Hugh is originally from Magee, MS which is about 4 hours away from Birmingham and is where Hugh's sweet parents, Kim and Alfred, still reside.

Bekah and Hugh have a dog named Cooper that they received as an early wedding gift...

He is a labradoodle and he is very glad his parents are finally married.  Cooper also loves his summer haircut that he received before the picture above was taken.  He is usually nice and fluffy but now he is cool and comfy.

So Bekah and Hugh went on a belated honeymoon last week to Jamaica and Hugh's kind parents agreed to dogsit Cooper for the week.  Hugh met his parents in Birmingham to drop off Cooper before they left for the honeymoon and last Sunday Birmingham was chosen again as sort of a mid point for Cooper's grandparents to return him to his mama and daddy.

I was so excited when Bekah sent me the email from her swanky beach resort to let me know they would be coming for a little visit when they returned home. Mom was already planning on being here to stay with us while Matt went out of town for work so all I needed was my baby sister, Rachel, to make this visit perfect.

I have not had both my sisters under my roof in a really long time and so I gave Rachel, who also lives in Nashville a call. Rachel is in school and had a big test this week but she caved and agreed to hitch a ride with Bekah and Hugh and study in the car.

Sometimes you just miss your sisters and need a good visit to make things all better.  Everyone met here for lunch and for a little belated birthday celebration for Mom.  My heart was very happy to have these three playing with my girls and sitting on our porch swing...

 Our cousin Lauren and her husband, Chase, joined in on the fun too.

 

With my girls entertained by so many people I could actually walk around and take some pictures.  It was quite a treat...

 

 

 

 

The day was over way too soon but I am so glad for even these quick visits from family.  I am hoping for another visit from my sisters in the near future and this time overnight bags better be included :)

How does your garden grow?

I have dreamed of having my very own garden for several years now and my sweet, precious, dear, wonderful hubby decided that this was the year to help me make that happen.  We only have one spot in our yard that is really an appropriate place for a garden and that involved taking out an entire row of not so attractive privet hedges.  Matt did this by hand and, as things always tend to do for us, it turned in to quite a job....

A whole row of these suckers had to come out and let me tell ya it wasn't fun for poor Matt.  But it is done and our yard really does look better with the hedges gone.  Our neighbor has beautiful azaleas that were hidden behind our hedges so now those line our garden area.

We are planning our garden based on the book "All New Square Foot Gardening" by Mel Bartholomew.

It seemed like the best solution for the little area of space we have in our small yard.  Basically we built a raised garden where you grow your fruits, veggies, flowers, etc.  in square foot sections.  There is a whole formula to all of this but Mel, the author, has it all figured out and has laid everything out in a seemingly simple manner.  I will let you all know if it is as revolutionary as he claims when it comes time to harvest what we are planting.

Once the hedges were cleared, Matt and Hannah marked off the garden area...

The building process was a family affair...

and I have never seen Hannah work so hard on a project.  Sweat was literally pouring from her sweet head.  I should probably stop here and tell you that I did not realize how much work she was actually going to do when I let her go outside in the dress she was wearing.  This was actually the same day as Lily's 1/2 birthday celebration so they were both a little overdressed for working in the yard.  Thankfully Hannah's dress was machine washable :)

Now that that little matter is cleared up...Both girls really did enjoy helping out and Hannah is now a master at reading a level, holding a hammer, and many other great things.  She loves, loves, loves working with her daddy and I am always such a proud mama when I see my girls involved in what we are doing around the house.

With the construction phase of the garden complete we have spent the past couple of days putting in the soil and planting our summer veggies.  I will save that for a later post though.  I hope you all have a great weekend!

Love,
The Browns