Kid is cookin

I got this boy a kid's cook book a few days ago. He's gone through it a few times. Of course the first thing he wanted to make was a dessert. I told him he'd have to pick a dinner to go with. Overflowing with pride and joy here are his results.

Homemade tomato soup. 

Honestly from scratch.
With cupid croutons.

The soup was delicious! He actually LOVES tomatoes and he'll eat anything if you put oregano on it so the soup was a perfect pick for him. He chose the recipe specifically because of the croutons which he was a little let down by because they turned to mush as soon as they hit the soup but this was a total win none the less.

No bake snake cake.

It's rice krispie treats. How awesome did he do?!?! Now, I'm a big fan of sugar. I mean a huge fan. I love candy corn and Cadbury eggs and ain't much on the planet sweeter than those two candies BUT rice krispie treats don't need frosting. Even so, this thing is cute!

Throw in a ton of sun, lots of water, and just enough coffee for this mom and today was wonderful.

Our baby girl is one year old

We went on a family vacation for four days to the Wisconsin Dells, scheduled around our little one's birthday. Our celebration of her was so much different than our celebration of Abe. We had a huge party for him. We rented a room, invited tons of people; the whole shebang.

This birthday trip for our baby Wren was really great. My sister came along with us. We baked a cake for baby Wren while on vacation, spent four days together just our little family and my sister doing fun things and having neat adventures. And that was that. No party. No guests. Just us.

My baby girl loves going new places, seeing new faces, trying out new things; she adores life! I'm glad we had a big party for my boy when he was one year old but it turns out that I ended up liking my husband's crazy idea for a birthday vacation even better for our baby girl.

She thoroughly enjoyed her birthday cake.

Pizza!

Big brother made her a birthday card, 

packed it in his suit case, 

and gave it to her at the hotel.

First stop on the Dells boat tour

Baby's first cake

Monarch Update

Eighteen days ago we brought in two practically microscopic monarch eggs. This is the most exciting science project Abe and I have done to date. Three days after our start we added one newly hatched caterpillar to our collection and currently we have two chrysalis and one getting ready to enter a chrysalis.

Day 1

Day 5, the caterpillar is next to the hole in the leaf

Day 10, he just molted

Day 16

Day 17, Yesterday

Day 18, Today

We have a small patch of milkweed in our backyard so it makes it fairly easy to collect eggs. One of the things I've learned already, aside from the fact that monarch caterpillars grow extremely fast is that they don't survive in the wild very easily. While collecting milkweed leaves for our little guys (which is the only source of food for a monarch caterpillar) I have noticed a few eggs. I've found after looking rather hard two very small caterpillars. The chew spots outside on the plants where little caterpillars have been snacking are evident but none of the ones outside have survived. The larger caterpillars eat a lot of leaves and they can't leave the plant they're on or they will die (from lack of food). There hasn't ever been enough damage done to the plants for any of the outdoor caterpillars to have lived very long.

I have heard that monarch butterflies are becoming less and less but after having begun this project I can see with my own eyes the reality of this. You know how when you buy a new car suddenly you see that make and model virtually everywhere you go? Well, I can't help but spot milkweed plants all over, every time we go for a walk or for a hike and even while we were on vacation this past week in a different part of the country. Despite all the milkweed making itself known to me everywhere I go I never see any that has evidence of a full grown monarch caterpillar having snacked on it. Crazy!

None the less, our little guys seem to be doing very well and within the next ten days if nature takes it's course as it should we will be releasing a few full grown monarchs into the wild.

The other thing I'd like to say I learned but in reality its simply something I already knew but have had the ultimate pleasure of observing these past 18 days is that nature, life, and the world we live in is amazing! Watching these tiny white dots grow into large colorful caterpillars and hopefully soon become beautiful butterflies has been mind blowing.

____________________________________________

Needless statement but here goes anyhow: We kept the tiny caterpillars in mason jars with lids that we already had (they get plenty of air if you open the lid to clean out the jar and put fresh leaves in each day). And I purchased a small critter cage for just under $7 and a roll of paper towel for $1.

$8 is our total expense for this science project. So as long as we get three butterflies out of the ordeal I guess you could say we paid $2.66 per butterfly to watch them grow, learn a ton, be amazed, and release three butterflies into the wild.

this week in photos

We've had a very rainy cold spring.
This week the warmth and sunshine finally showed up.
We spent a ton of time out of doors and it was wonderful.

Baby girls first time at the water table

A hike through a dune trail

Loving the sunshine

Six days of raising Monarchs

Kids in our tiny garden;
The zucchini seeds sprouted this week

dog kisses

I can think of several little wins for yesterday:
1.) We didn't get ice cream after dinner. We live in a beach town and there are some very good ice cream places around. It can be very difficult to resist but last night we did resist. Hooray for us.
2.) We brought our dog over to the in laws to see how she'd interact with their dog, to see if it'd be okay for her to stay with them when we go on vacation in less than two weeks time. It went very well and we're feeling pretty excited that this will be the first time we've ever gone away and not had to have someone stay at our place or at least stop over several times a day. (before now the in laws always had several dogs and we'd had our two... it's different now)

3.) I've been battling a fierce cold and the darn thing has been winning. I forced myself to rest when I got home from work, as in I didn't go out and mow the lawn, continue the painting job I've been working on outside, and get started back at the cement patching I began a day or so ago. Nope. I just rested. This is a win for me and I do feel better this morning.

4.) We've finally (as in I've been meaning to for years and haven't ever committed) brought in two milk weed leaves with monarch eggs on them. It's a fantastic science project, a fun learning experience, and a good thing to do in general to raise up monarchs and release them once they've emerged from their chrysalis. So many little wins.

The FAIL for yesterday is an easy one to come up with. I sucked at my job. I went to work with a cold that's kicking my butt and I was incredibly unproductive. I wash my hands a lot and I didn't cough on anyone so I'm not too worried about infecting the masses but I was so lethargic and slow. I hardly did anything in the eight hours I was there. Not my finest hour.

Yesterday's SPICE was priceless. I wish I'd had a camera handy or been able to video it. My in laws have a young golden retriever. As I mentioned before we went over there yesterday with our little old lady to see how the pup and the misses would do together. The retriever is a SWEETHEART! But if you've ever met a young retriever I don't have to tell you how much energy they have. Up until now we've tried to keep the baby far away from her, so the baby didn't get pounced and trampled and so on and so forth. 

Well yesterday little miss Wren was standing on the ground next to her daddy when big, wild, happy, sweet Sugar came right up to her and licked her from chin up to the very tippy top of her little fuzzy head. I was sitting across the room so I was the truly fortunate one who got to see my baby's face. As that big wet dog nose came rushing towards her she squinted her little blue eyes tighter than anyone has probably every squinted their eyes before, her whole face squinted. Her shoulders scrunched up and as Sugar (that's the dog's name) licked her all over my little lady smiled and smiled and smiled with all her might. Granted the entire encounter lasted all of one second but it was adorable!!! Sugar left baby Wren with a mess of sticking up hair and a gleeful smile on her sticky wet face. First ever attack of dog kisses. That's a spice for certain.

win fail spice

In May I set a daily Win, Fail, Spice challenge for myself. It turned out to be exactly what I needed to get back into blogging/ writing again and it was very therapeutic. I firmly believe, and even though it's my firm belief I often times completely neglect this fact, that when we "stop to smell the roses" as they say life truly does become much more sweet. Simply taking a moment to reflect on what brought joy, or what there was to be thankful for, or a hard point in the day that could have been handled differently, for me it sort of solidifies these important specks in time. Maybe its a little like taking a photograph so you can remember a moment. Stopping to reflect helps make these moments more meaningful, less fleeting, more impressionable on myself.

Needless to say, I think I'm going to stick with my win, fail, spice format at least here and there. I like it!

we have a walker

WIN: Decluttered the dining room. Oh my goodness it feels so nice to have stuff cleared out of there. Hooray!

SPICE: (I like to end with the spice but I have to list it first because it's related to the fail) Baby girl started officially walking. She's been taking a few steps to us and she's been taking a few steps from one item to another but yesterday she started actually walking through the room. She's doing that adorable little penguin walk with her hands in the air but she is very officially walking. This is such a delightful spice. How many times in ones life does someone experience their child walking for the very first? Amazing!

FAIL: I didn't even think to call my husband at work when baby Wren started to really officially walk. I mean, she has sort of been walking for a bit now. When he got home she was in bed for the night. I told him that she started walking around the room and he was pretty annoyed with me for not having called him at work. Ooops

yard work blog

This is turning into the yard work blog. Yesterday's WIN was getting a ton of yard work done and cleaning inside the house a bunch while having fun with the kids. It was a gorgeous day, warm, sunny, and the entire world is in bloom and filled with wild life. Wonderful!

The FAIL for the day was eating almost no healthy food.

Yesterday's SPICE was the picnic Abe set up for us in the backyard. Baby Wren's pack and play was already outside because she was in it while I was mowing the lawn. We went inside. While I fed her Abe put a sheet out, set up two lawn chairs on it. A little one for him and a big one for me. He wheeled her pack and play over to it. He brought out six stuffed animals, two for each of us. And then he got some bowls and plates and brought out chips and granola bars for our snack. When he was all done he announced the picnic and it was wonderful.