First, I was given a rose by the BF of Child #2. Isn't that sweet? He may have been trying to schmooze me, and DH is convinced that he has, but I think he is just a nice kid. Child #2 and BF spent some time catching one of our giant goldfish out in our pond for the amusement of the little kids. Seriously though, these goldfish were those cheap feeder fish that you can buy for a quarter and they are now huge! This picture is not posed. The little kids adore BF as much as his girlfriend does.
Check out the pony tails on these two. They totally look like sisters and have similar personalities too...
We decided that since the weather was so nice, we should release our butterflies. I acclimated them to the fresh air and breeze for a few hours out on the back porch where My Pathetic Doberman tried to eat them...
This is what a Painted Lady butterfly looks like...
I have to admit, I was a little sad. We spent so much time raising these beautiful insects. Two of the butterflies flew right off and we never saw them again. One flopped around on the deck for awhile and then left as soon as it could. The last one may not have survived the release. Its wings were stuck together from flopping around in the nectar dish. DH had to perform surgery with a butter knife to separate the wings. We set the butterfly on a forsythia bush, but we don't have much hope. Here is Child #3 holding him or her. Child #4 cried and cried because 1) He wasn't holding one and 2) after he held one it flew away...
After DH mowed the lawn and I cleared the porch of all muddy clothes (and actually hung a load of laundry in the sun to dry!), we sat in the sun and just soaked up the Vitamin D. Until the boys decided they wanted to eat ants. Last year we caught all three of them eating ants under a camellia bush and thought the boys, especially Child #3 learned his lesson about eating bugs without asking. But this time he asked. After a lot of "What?" and "Are you kidding?" and "You want ants crawling around in your stomach?" we, being super cool parents, decided a few ants wouldn't hurt. So the fun was on... and DH joined them. The skill was trying to keep the ants crawling on your tongue long enough for me to get a picture...
Today we are back to gray and rainy, and yesterday seems like a dream...
