Painted Lady BUTTERFLIES!!!

We have butterflies! So exciting! We had the neat experience of watching several of the painted lady butterflies as they emerged from their cocoon. They stay on their cocoon in a vertical position for about two hours after they emerge. We got to watch as they flapped their wings to dry them out and to get blood pushed into their wings. It's really quite an amazing process and I highly recommend doing this with your children. We all learned so much! 

 We attempted to release one of the butterflies, but it wouldn't fly away! She just stayed on Claire's finger. Of course, Claire thought it was the greatest thing ever! So, we put her back in the net and waited for another day for the release.

 Another picture of Claire and the butterfly on her finger!

 I kept the net in front of the window for sunshine and warmth. This day I had the window open and they loved the breeze coming through. They flapped their wings as the wind blew in their net. I knew it was time to let them spread their wings!

 It was beautiful, warm, breezy day for the release! Claire released each of them by hand!

 She has one of the butterflies in her left hand. She threw them up in the air and they immediately FLEW away, high up into the sky. It was so beautiful to watch!

The last butterfly stuck around for a bit. It was neat to watch her for a little longer, almost as if she was letting us say our goodbyes. Good luck beautiful butterflies. Fly FREE!

Grandma McDowell Visit

The girls and I had another nice visit with Grandma McDowell last week! It was a BEAUTIFUL day so we spent a lot of time outside! 

 My new favorite photo of the girls with Grandma!

Claire, my budding photographer, took this pic of me and my Grandma! 

Columbus Zoo

My friend, Cynetta, invited us to go to the Columbus Zoo with them at the end of March. It was a pretty Spring day and we had fun looking at all the animals and spending time with sweet friends!

 This makes me laugh... Anna and the goat having a stare-off!

 My girls, especially Anna, are borderline obsessed with Polar Bears. They've seen the enormous stuffed bear at the Cincinnati Children's Museum several times recently, so they were thrilled to see a living polar bear at the zoo!

 Aww, the amazing elephant. My favorite of all animals!

 This beautiful tiger made my heart break. He paced non-stop while we were there and apparently, that is all he ever does. I know that there is a need for zoos for breeding purposes, but they make me sad. So unnatural.

 Claire, Anna, Noah and Grace (I thought Benjamin was in this pic, too. Apparently, I was wrong.)

 Cynetta and I were cracking up at these two. We didn't realize that Claire and Noah were such proficient map readers! Haha!!!

 I adore these special times with my girls!

The highlight of our trip was seeing the baby gorilla. Oh my... how CUTE was this little guy?!?! Adorable!

Grandpa Shepherd's 85th

At the end of March, we headed up north to Cuyahoga Falls to celebrate Grandpa Shepherd's 85th birthday. Ben's Uncle John and Aunt Shirley hosted and open house party to honor Grandpa. It was so neat to see how many friends and family members came out to wish him a happy 85th! He is a very LOVED man!

 Grammy with her sister Sharon, her sons Michael and Hayden and nephew Michael!

 4 Generations!

While we were in Cuyahoga Falls, we visited Ben's cousin Ron and his wife Rachel. They had a sweet, little baby girl named Kenzie in early February. Such a beauty! 

Caterpillars & Chrysalides

Two years ago, Grammy gave us a Butterfly Garden as a gift and we all LOVED watching the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly... such an amazing process! So this spring, I decided to order more caterpillars. At this point, the caterpillars have formed into chrysalides and we hope to see at least one of the five emerge from their cocoon as a beautiful painted lady butterfly!

 The girls were so excited when we got our caterpillars in the mail! They come in this self contained jar with food on the bottom. We watched them almost quadruple in size over about a 7-10 day period!

 A photo of the chrysalides hanging from the top of the jar! Amazing!

 The caterpillar attaches himself to a paper disc when it's ready to form a cocoon. Once all five caterpillars formed their cocoon to become a chrysalis, we removed the paper disc and pinned it to the butterfly net.

And there they are! Now we wait another week or so until they emerge as butterflies! This miraculous process has brought hours & hours of fascination and learning to our whole family!

Grammy's Birthday

We loved celebrating Grammy's big 60th Birthday on March 27th! We are so thankful for her and the love and joy she brings to our family! 

Happy Birthday, Grammy! xoxo

Ms. Rainbow

I was asked to help out with an activity at Claire's preschool recently. They had a lady nicknamed 'Ms. Rainbow' from Boonshoft Museum come and talk to the kids about, wait for it... RAINBOWS! She was a great lecturer and really held the kids' attention with the experiments she allowed them to take part in. It was fun to watch Claire and her classmates participating and excited about learning! Anna was even allowed to take part in the activities!

 The kids with their 3D glasses!

 Ms. Rainbow teaching the kids the ROY G BIV acronym to learn the colors of the rainbow!

 Caroline is in Claire's class... she is doing one of the neat experiments!

 Little Anna got into it!

 Claire loved it! 

Learning can be FUN!

Clifton Gorge

Isn't it amazing how beautiful weather and beautiful scenery can truly uplift your soul? I am so thankful for a mild winter and warm spring weather coming VERY early to Southern Ohio. We took advantage of the warm temperatures and took a family hike at Clifton Gorge recently. I forgot how pretty it is there! We had a great time exploring, getting exercise and being together as a family!

 Hard to believe that Ben and I have been together almost TWO decades! The best twenty years of my life! 

 I really cannot believe how big Claire looks. She's almost six, has now lost six teeth (her bottom and top adult teeth are coming in), is 48 inches tall, has learned to read and just had her kindergarten screening! So proud of the little lady she is becoming!

 Grammy & Papa!

 LOVE my family!

 Taking a quick break during our hike! A fun time!!!

Wild Flowers

Grammy has beautiful wild flowers growing in the woods behind her house. She enjoys showing the girls the pretty flowers and captured some really cute photos, too!

Claire & Anna 2012

When I had Anna's 4 year photos taken, I had Amber sneak in some of Claire by herself and Claire and Anna together! Amber gave me over 80 edited photos, so it was hard to narrow the ones down for the blog. I do have all 80+ photos on Facebook if you're interested in looking at all of them!

So Claire!!

Love this one of Claire!

One of my all time favorite photos of my girls together, if not my favorite ever!