Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Life Lately

Update on the chrysalis!!  Remember a post or two back I mentioned that we had a caterpillar that made a chrysalis in this net?  And we thought it was dead because it had dropped to the bottom of the pavilion?  And did I mention that Davis was throwing the pavilion around the porch one night after dinner while we were enjoying a fire?  We really just assumed it was dead from the cold (and/or the throwing)!  Well the next day Davis went out on the porch while I was in the kitchen doing school with Emmett and D ran in after a few minutes yelling "Buh-fy!"  "Buh-fy!"  "Come see!"  "Come see!"  I just thought he had seen one in the yard and told him I would be out in a minute but he insisted and grabbed my hand to pull me outside.  So I went out there this is what we saw...


We were SO excited!!!! I couldn't believe it!!! Maybe all that being thrown around helped him emerge!  It was so awesome to see him in there.  The boys were beside themselves.

We made Borax crystals after CC last week and they turned out pretty well...


*sigh* The struggle is real... The boys had donuts for a treat the other day and then requested mac and cheese for lunch.  This is like my dream lunch right here.  Oh, to be 7 years old again.  It is so hard to avoid eating this stuff!!!


Phil flew to Houston last Saturday and then drove the whole way back in his new truck!  He had been researching and looking for a truck forever and found a good deal in Houston.  He was excited (well, as excited as Phil gets).  :)


Davis loved playing with the neighbor's huge water gun.


I opened the door to the little ones' room the other morning and found them like this...


Reid was saying, "Isn't Davis so cute, Mom??  He's so cute!  I love him.  I love when his bink goes up and down like this (meaning he loves when Davis sucks on his pacifier.  I love that, too!)."  It was so sweet.


J took the butterfly to CC for his presentation last week, and then we let him go.  It took him almost a week to start flying around in the pavilion and we wanted to make sure he was strong before we released him.  He went straight over to the flowers on my loropetalum bushes and stayed there a while.







I came downstairs one morning and saw three of the boys building Legos out of what has become our Lego drawer.  They are Lego obsessed.  Even Davis is getting hooked!



I had to wake Davis up early from his nap the other day to go to a playdate, and it was so hard to do that when I walked in and saw him like this!  Sweet baby!  My boys have all loved their blankies.


Helping make pizza the other night...


I woke up early on Sunday and the weather was cool and crisp so I enjoyed a few minutes on the porch with my coffee before church.  So peaceful.


Then a few minutes later Emmett joined me and we listened to Bible stories on the app on his Kindle.


After church we took bikes down to 30A and had lunch and rode around.  We haven't been able to do that for the last year since we had no way to take our bikes places, but we do now thanks to the truck!



I tried to take a selfie of Davis and me while we were riding, but that didn't work out so well.


So I took a better one when we stopped.  He's my bike buddy. :)


First ice cream from an ice cream truck!


Fun park in Watercolor...



Passed out on the way home...


Baseball in the front yard.  Davis was outfielder...


Our friends across the street discovered a rope swing on the property across the street from our neighborhood and the boys are obsessed.  The property is right on the water and is so beautiful with all the huge trees.  The swing actually belongs to our friends who have the pontoon rental business right there, so we weren't trespassing too badly.  :)




Friday, March 11, 2016

Ocala Trip

We went to Ocala last week to spend some much-needed time at the "farm" with family.  Becky and her family were down from Indiana for the week and we definitely couldn't miss seeing them, plus we hadn't been down to the farm for a while and the boys had been begging to go.  It was a wonderful time, as usual!  

We were able to get a pretty nice picture of my parents and all of their grandkids...


My highlight of the trip was probably seeing my niece, Grace, who is almost two and just absolutely adorable.  The highlight for the boys was definitely getting to shoot Popeye's rifle and pistol.  I was super nervous, but all of the men seemed okay with it so I just trusted Phil and rolled with it.  They set up a target in the woods of a milk jug and two solo cups and took turns shooting at it.  E and J absolutely loved it.  They hit the milk jug several times and were so excited.  Reid even got a turn a few times and Uncle Ryan took a turn, too!  He is also hooked!






In the summer those woods are spider heaven with huge banana spiders (or "golden orb weaver" spiders, according to J and E, as seen on Wild Kratts) everywhere and I would never stick even a TOE in there... But at this time of year there was not a spider to be seen and it was nice to be able to be in there with the boys.

Look at this absolute cutie-pie!


She LOVED being outside, and especially outside with no shoes on!!  


And she also LOVED riding a horse for the first time!  She didn't want to get off!  It's in her blood.  :)


 "Hayrides" were, of course, another favorite activity for the boys.  And Bernie... oh my gosh... he had the absolute time of his life out there.  He got to run free and play and jump and go crazy with the boys as much as he wanted.  He was a good boy and stayed close to the house and didn't wander, so we were able to let him out all the time.  He was so happy.







Poor Grace did NOT want to ride in the back without Mommy!



The night before we left the grown-ups (except my mom and dad) went to a UF basketball game up in Gainesville.  


It was the last game of the season and they were playing Kentucky, so we figured they wouldn't win, but it was super fun anyway!  I cheered for the players on the team, but refused to sing any of the Gator songs and absolutely didn't do any "chomping."  Ugh.  No, but really, it was a fun night.  Basketball is really exciting!


Hey, look!!  I'm a Gator fan!  Ugh... Blech.  Just kidding... No, I'm not.  :)