Snails

Continuing with our unintentional nature theme this week, I thought you would enjoy some photos of a couple of other little friends that stopped by for a brief visit. We had a nice soaking rain recently, which always brings out the snails. Being the fun, creature loving Papa that he is, Kevin brought in a couple of fairly large snails that he thought August would love to see. Boy was he right. August was completely enamored with the two little guys. He carried them around, played with them on the floor, and let them slither around all over him. Who am I kidding, we all had a fun time with these two little invertebrates! But thankfully we are a catch and release kind of family, so after our fun play time, the boys took them back to their happy little home.

Butterflies on the Brain

Shortly after our trip to visit the butterflies, August came across a caterpillar that he decided we needed to save from the trial. Like any good Papa, Kevin scooped him up in a water bottle, and brought him home to a happy little mason jar habitat. There was some research on what to feed the little guy, what type of leaves he needs, etc. But the very next morning, before I could even snap his first squirmy photo, our little caterpillar began morphing into cocoon. August is very familiar with the process thanks to one of his all time favorite books, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. However, because this green cocoon looked so much like a leaf, we don't think August quite understood what had happened to his caterpillar. Much to our delight, our little caterpillar shed his habitat and dawned his beautiful wings on the Sunday morning after a harvest moon. Knowing that his lifespan is so short, we let August gawk at our new little friend for a while, participated in a mini photo session, and finally took him to the park to be released. We're not sure how he really felt about entering our home for the week as he didn't even have the decency to stick around and thank us. As soon as Kevin lifted the green leaf out into the fresh air, and as quickly as you could blink, our friend was gone into the trees. August still asks us 'where buffwhy go?'

"where go?"

Field Trip Friday

Kevin was recently away on travel for a couple of consecutive weeks. As soon as he returned, he took that Friday off and we drove down to Houston for a somewhat impromtu family field trip. I had purchased a voucher for the butterfly exhibit at the Houston Museum of Natural Science many moons ago, and seeing that it was going to expire at the end of September, we figure the time was now or never. Plus we figured August would be at a really fun age to enjoy it. That's a complete understatement! 

What began as a plan to see the butterflies for an hour or so, turned into an entire day of fun at the museum. We started with the butterflies, after a quick lunch break, we headed into check out the fabulous display of dinosaur bones. From there we wandered through the energy exhibit, the wild animal section, and the gem and mineral gallery before calling it quits after a mandatory stop at the museum shop. Once we had officially closed the museum down, it was time to swing by Starbucks for the caffeine-fix needed to make the drive back home. The day turned out to be so much more fun than any of us ever anticipated. We feel so blessed to have been able to take the time and enjoy this mini-adventure day together as a family!

Showering Babies

For the past couple of months, my dearest friend Cindy and I planned a special baby shower for my oldest friend, Katy. It has been a long, emotional road to get to this point, but now that Miss Reese Lillie is set to make her arrival in the next couple of weeks, the time was ripe for a celebration. We've had many showers at Cindy's house as it is the perfect canvas of shabby and chic, for every kind of celebration. So while I happily slaved away on the invitations and decorations, Cindy worked on perfecting the menu for the day. With just a couple of days to go, we were forced to move the event to Friday evening, but with the helpful contributions of a couple of our other high school friends and Cindy's mom, we were able to get everything set up in the perfect amount of time!

And the nice thing about evening celebrations is that the next morning we all could just wake up and enjoy the day at our leisure. While the boys were out dove hunting, we got to spend the morning hanging out with these crumbsnatchers!

he slays me...

First Day of School

Now that school has been in session for just about a month, I figured it was time to get around to posting about the momentous day. August is attending the same preschool that he started last year, and as a wonderful, added surprise, is in the same classroom with the same teachers and volunteers as last year! Apparently they nixed the toddler class that he attended this past year, so the two year olds get a bonus year of being the youngsters. August absolutely loves every thing about his school, and literally runs through the doors greeting everyone with an exuberant 'good morning' every single day. So we were never really concerned about his ability to adapt to a new set of teachers, but since that has been delayed another year, we were more than thrilled to learn there would be zero adapting this year...other than getting used to all of the new little faces around him. Again, we feel so fortunate to have found this school. We couldn't imagine a happier, more nurturing environment for Augie's introduction to education.

old reliable almond butter & jelly sandwiches

ready to walk himself to school if mommy won't stop taking pictures!

You may have noticed a running theme with the color green. In all honesty, we're not really sure if he prefers green over any other color. While I do love blue, it's just fairly expected for little boys to wear blue. So naturally, I feel the need to change it a bit. Last year I sent him to school in a green polo, and I've decided it would be fun to continue with the tradition for as long as he'll put up with it.