It was so neat seeing Adrian ask to have the butterfly on his nose today. He was watching Audrey play with their newest butterfly and he decided to try it himself. The cool thing is, last year he would hold the butterflies, but he was very timid about it and would get upset if we did not remove them quickly enough.
Yes, there is a secret to getting a live butterfly to land on your nose and stay there…but I am not telling!
We have raised butterflies for the last four years. We started out with a store bought kit and then moved to Monarchs. We find the eggs or caterpillars in the wild, feed them and observe them.
This year, Oma is giving us most of our managerie. There is construction down our road and it seems to have destroyed the Monarchs habitat. Out of the thirty something caterpillers we have, only two have been from our road. The remaining are from Oma’s three plants!
Yesterday, Pastor was talking about taking time to see God. He does so much and his evidence is all around us. I love watching the caterpillers grow and change. Observing them change from a caterpillar to a chrysalis is cool. But watching them emerge from their chrysalis is better.
Only God can change a tiny egg into a beautiful butterfly!
We made our first trip to Blueberry Park today. With Allan’s help, we picked 42 pounds. We love their policy of keeping half and we can take the other half home for free. We hope to go again soon, because 21 pounds of great tasting berries will not last long at this house!
Adrian brought this picture in for me today and told me a story.
Once upon a time, there was a kid named Momma. She was walking through the woods. She found a flower. Then she was hiking through the woods again and found another flower. Then she was hiking through the woods again and she found another flower. Then you were hiking through the woods again and you found another flower. And that is all. You were done.
I asked him to sign his name and he said there was room on the front. I am glad that I rescued the picture and got him to write on the back. He drew Daddy a beautiful picture too, and then signed his name in blue crayon right across the middle of the picture!
One of the best ways to spend a lazy summer evening!
Happy Father’s Day!
On our last day of vacation, we were not sure when Allan’s class would be over. Knowing how much Audrey loves horses, we tried to schedule a tour on a horse farm, but that fell through. We discovered a cute little park with some horse statues that the kids really enjoyed.
We were told about the Lexington Cemetery which was near by that we went to and enjoyed. We found an old Burr Oak that had a plaque saying that it was around during the signing of the Constitution!
Allan got off at noon so we started heading back home. We stopped for lunch in Cincinatti and milk shakes nearer home. Our trip back was good and we were all glad to be home.
I loved these pictures of Mark from vacation.
He is growing so quickly! I am eagerly (or not so eagerly) watching to see him become what God designed him to be!
We needed an easy day. So we went to the Lexington Farmer’s Market. We bought some delicious peaches and some flavored honey.
Then we headed to Kentucky University’s Botanical Gardens. They were very pretty and the children had lots of time just playing!
We ate lunch in the hotel, took a nap, and then went swimming. Adrian learned how to “Monkey crawl” –crawl around the edge of the pool–and how to dunk under water. It was a lot easier watching him when he was afraid of the water!
While the kids and I got to go exploring, Allan was stuck in a classroom learning more about designing on computers. We often wished he could be with us and we knew he would have enjoyed the hike very much.
Our trip started out interesting. There was a little girl off on a boardwalk crying. It turns out she was lost. She was mad at her parents and took off running and then could not find them again. We walked with her up the path until she found her sister and she was taken to her parents.
We went back down to see the cave and Mark found a little one. We also discovered a lot of poison ivy! Adrian picked some and God protected him from getting a rash.
We walked to the the Natural Bridge which was bigger than I thought. We ate lunch there, admired the scenery and talked about how far we walked. We decided to go to the scenic overlook to see the “whole” bridge.
Mark spotted the balancing rock on the way back or we would have passed right by. A little further, Mark found a bigger cave that was boarded over. He tried to look inside but it was too dark.
We kept teasing we should have counted the steps, there must have been a few million of them. Then Audrey got silly and kept saying she needed steps or she would not be happy.
More water and snacky food would have made the walk better, but everyone did a great job hiking. The kids spotted two different types of lizards and some huge dragonflies.
This was a great day! We enjoyed seeing God’s beauty and being able to enjoy the sun and fresh air.
