Catty

Typically, this is what people think of when they hear the word catty:

cat-ty

adj. cat-ti-er, cat-ti-est

1. subtly, cruel or malicious; spitelful: a catty remark

2. catlike; stealthy

But not at our house. Catty is our former caterpillar. The caterpillar my kids captured in their bug catcher late last summer because he was going to turn into a butterfly. He wrapped himself into a chrysalis and settled in for a time.

Then fall came, and there was no butterfly.

Winter was next and, well, you know.

I put the bug catcher in the garage for the winter. Our very.long.winter. Our very long, COLD, winter. The very long, cold winter that we all thought would never end.

(You get it, right?)

Once it was finally starting to warm up, the kids brought the bug catcher back out and sat it on the porch. I let them continue to believe that this pupa survived the winter and was still undergoing metamorphosis. I didn't want to break their little hearts by telling them that their caterpillar probably didn't survive for seven months outside in the cold.

But apparently the joke was on me.

Meet Catty.

Xander was outside playing one May afternoon and came running in shouting that Catty turned into a butterfly. It was a gorgeous butterfly at that. And the odd thing was that Xander had brought home a butterfly book that day for his reading homework.

The kids wanted to keep it, but we had to explain to them that it needed to be free, so we opened up the door and watched it for awhile.

Catty seemed to have trouble finding his way out, so Jason found a thick piece of mulch for him to hop up on and we brought him out of the bug catcher where he made his way down to the flower bed next to our lilac bush.

He stayed there for quite a bit, flapping his little wings. We thought he was learning to fly, but after a quick internet search I discovered it's how they dry off their wings after first emerging. And then he must have gotten tired of two little kids ogling him and breathing on him, and he flew away.

I hate being wrong, but I'm so glad my kids got to have faith in nature and see that some things are worth the wait.

I need a plan

It appears as though Thursday is the last day of school. That's two days from now. We've all been counting down the days. For different reasons, of course. :-)

I've known this day was coming for a while now, so I've had ample time to make a plan for filling our summer days with things besides TV, Wii and screaming children who like to fight all day.

I've done a LOT of research about crafts, events and local happenings in my community.

And this is the plan I've come up with.

I think it's going to be a long summer.

Mom's Day

So I'm a little behind. Almost a month. Geesh! But wanted to share a few Mother's Day pictures.

I woke up to find that the kids had gifted me some items in their Easter baskets.

(I know....Easter was two weeks before Mother's Day, the baskets should be back in the crawl space. Sue me.)

Anyway, Xander had made me a lovely book at school where he filled out on the pages all the reasons that he liked me. It was very clear by the end that he likes me because I feed him, as most of the pages said he like me because I make him XYZ to eat.

He also went and found everything he could in his room that's yellow and gave it to me since yellow is my favorite color. Then he chastised Jordis because her gifts were NOT yellow.

She had the last laugh though when she held up a family picture she drew......of Jason, Me and herself.

Those two crack me up.

Perspective

This afternoon, the little man came home from school with this new T-shirt. Apparently all of the first graders got one from a local business.

I guess I've never taken the time to figure out what year my kids should graduate from high school, so it was interesting to have it thrust into my face like that.

I'm not sure what bothers me more.....that my first-born is supposed to be out of high school in 11 years, or that in 11 years it will be almost time for my 30th high school reunion.

Hmmmmmm.........

Party #1

With spring comes the birthdays of the young'uns here in our household. I think about ideas for months in advance, start planning, and get excited about finding bargains for the parties. This year I was really focused on Jordis' party since Xander decided he didn't want one. And then a few weeks before his birthday he got up one day and announced he'd changed his mind. With limited time to prepare we told him he could have a set number of friends over for a Mario Kart Wii tournament. And this is how it went down......

Since I was working on a budget with two birthdays in the same week, I decided to fore go ordering the Mario Kart Wii party pack online, and went with a theme of primary colors mixed with the black and white racing checks. I made the place mats by just cutting up some fabric I found at JoAnn's (with my 40% off coupon) and the turtle shells were sections of an egg carton that I cut up and painted.

I used my Cricut and existing scrapbook paper to make a banner that hung over the dessert buffet.

The kids had an array of homemade Mario Kart themed desserts to munch on......sugar cookies with royal icing and fondant, chocolate cupcakes with butter cream frosting, brownies with royal icing and M&M's in the primary colors of the party theme.

My plan was to just have cupcakes, but Xander said he HAD to have a cake. So this is the cake that I slaved over lovingly made for him and he ended up eating a cupcake anyway.

I couldn't justify any sugary drinks with all the junk food we were having, so I jazzed up some water bottles and no one seemed to mind.

All the participants received a certificate and a trophy, with a little something extra for our tournament winner.

And goodie boxes on the way out.

The birthday boy had a great time and even had some love for his little sister.

Easter

Jason worked all night so he was in bed for the Easter morning festivities. We cared a lot more when they were smaller but now we prefer sleep over revelry, so I told him he could miss it if I didn't have to get up at 6:30 when he came home from work. It was a good trade-off and the kids didn't seem to mind.

They showed him what the Easter bunny brought and we bought them life jackets to wear on our boat once it's built, so Jason still got to watch them get excited about something.

As has been the case all spring, it was rainy on Easter, so no outdoor pictures of the kids this year. In fact, I couldn't get a good picture of them together to save my life. When one was ready the other wouldn't cooperate.

Jordis cute and ready with signature head tilt. Xander not ready.

Xander finally cooperative, Jordis not so much.

Xander still photogenic, Jordis decides to be present.

Like Xan's tennis shoes? He hates dress shoes and I figured it wasn't worth the money to buy him any to wear for two hours before he outgrows them. Trying to pick my battles.

After church we picked up Jason and went to my mom and step-dad's house. The kids had an Easter egg hunt before lunch.

Then the boys played Wii while the girls cleaned up the kitchen.


It was my mom's birthday weekend as well, so she opened presents and then we had dessert and played some Go Fish.


We left and paid a visit to Jason's parents as well. They got the kids each a great collection of books, so they were excited and also had something to entertain them in the car on the way home. It was a nice relaxing day with family.

Easter preparations

Last year we were in Tennessee for Easter, so this year we were able to fit in a few more activities since we were home. Jordis went to a fun event at church where they had live animals, stories, crafts and an egg hunt.

Unfortunately it was raining so the egg hunt had to be inside. I've never seen so many eggs in one place.

On Good Friday Jason's sister came over and we had an egg-coloring extravaganza. We got fancy and made some tie-dyed ones and used stickers to spell things.



The Easter bunny even did some preparations of his own.