Something Amazing

We have been following the Caterpillar/ Butterfly transformation like a hawk. I have sat outside staring at the chrysalis waiting until the kids come out and say I need to feed them. Well I might have missed the actual transformation from a caterpillar to a chrysalis but I actually witnessed a butterfly come out of her cocoon. I say 'her' because I'm fairly certain, after all the research I have done, that this particular butterfly was a she. Anyway so here goes:


The first sighting of a caterpillar :



I call these the triplets :









I know this picture is blurry but I just love it.









So initially we kept finding the caterpillars in the ground around the pot of milk weed. I kept telling my kids to pick them up and put them back in very gently. I think my head wasn't screwed on at the time. I guess I didn't realize that they fall off and crawl something like 30 to 40 feet to do their thing. The caterpillar is escaping while he can.



They crawled up into the top of our clubhouse, all 4 of them :



and found some great places to make their chrysalis's. They stay in these for the next 9 to 14 days in order to ripen. Despite my best efforts the transformation from caterpillar to chrysilis was so very fast that I never caught on in action. I did look religiously and in about 30 minutes one of them went from caterpillar to chrysalis, shocking to us all.









The amazing thing was that we just happened to catch this guy just after she had come out of her chrysalis. Her wings are still drying, which took about 2 hours. At this point I felt that I had already seen something so very amazing, little did I know that God had something else to show me.









So as all this was happening Rob was kind of farting around watering plants when he found this otherwise undiscovered  guy about to hatch.







Now I knew that when they looked like this they were close to coming out, I just didn't know how long any of this took. So I pulled up a chair and just watched for about 2 minutes. Meanwhile Rob had gone inside to get everyone to show them this new almost hatching butterfly. As one child comes out I see the thing start to bulge and I start screaming. I had no idea this butterfly would emerge so quickly. It all happened in about 15 seconds and I was blessed to wintess it. Even more so to have my camera pointed exactly on it. I can say this was truly a gift from God, I mean the chances of all this happening the way it did are just overwhelming. So here are the pictures :













































So that's it, in a nutshell. I waited for almost 3 weeks for this lifecycle to cycle and here I am. I felt like a nervous wreck having these things hang in the top of the clubhouse. I was so worried that the kids would inadvertently  knock one off. But they didn't and I've seen something amazing and am feeling so honored and blessed by such a miracle.

Crying Wolf

Yes my children haver done it and this week I was got, hoodwinked, swindled, but I GOT HER BACK !!!. Yes the life lesson was big this week for Dylan, she lied about being sick at school and really disrupted my life, my recovery from another sick child and the schedule for the day, but do not fear I stuck it to her!!

You may ask me how such a sweet angelic looking face could perform such a devious task and I would say really she's 7. She has a little model envy, I think it's just innate in little girls kind of like the desire to wear high heels or make up or paint your nails etc.. I could go on forever but let's talk about what happened......

 I had a child at home(Ryan) that was legitimately sick, I know this because I had been up all night with him. Well little Ms. TweerpyPants decides to go to school and shortly thereafter tell them that she is sick and needs to come home. They, the school, being the temporary caregivers that they are, call me and say "she looks flushed. her face is red and she says she is going to throw up" and I say "really are you sure? " "Yes we think she looks like she is sick" I say "i'll be right there as soon as I make some sort of arrangement for the child on the couch with stuff coming out everywhere, surely I can't bring him in the car this way so it will take me a few minutes to make some arrangements" . This is when I get lucky, I realize that the lady that cleans our home is here and maybe if I ask nicely she will just get Ryan out if there is a fire or not let him answer the door if someone knocks. I ask she says sure. So I'm off to get Dylan. I arrive take one look at her and know for a fact that she is not even remotely sick, sparkly eyes and all, she has just gotten herself in a little over her head. So as I'm signing her our I asked her to wait outside for me and I tell the front office that "i will eat my words if that child is really sick but I'm here already so I'll take her home". We get in the car and I decide I'm in need of a Starbucks. I say to Dylan " Would you like some chocolate milk and cookies from Starbucks?" I get this Oscar worthy response of "Well I can try" .Wait one minute, you can try???? Yes that's what she said. So we proceed to Starbucks and just as I''m about to order I look over and say to her "I think I've changed my mind, and chocolate milk and cookies probably isn't very good for your belly just now so let's just pass this time" I then proceeded to pull up and order my drink.

The moral of the story little Dylan is I'm your mama and I know when your sick, your eyes tell me so !!!

Later that night she made a full confession to her father, smart kid I'm telling you.

The Many Faces

This handsomeness has many faces. they are particularly cute sometimes but other times he likes to make "funny" faces. Not sure how funny they actually are but my heavens he is some serious good looking. People tell me he looks just like me!

I'm not sure the one on the right screams intelligence but I'll take him anyway

These kind of scream schmuzer to me. I don't know if that is a word but if it is then this is the look.

 I always love the leftover lunch/snack/all day long left on his face. I often wonder, or try to remember, if I ever even cared about how clean the kids faces were. I think when you break that certain threshold of children outnumbering hands then the cleanliness of the face kind of swings full circle to the bottom of the priority list.

Easter is coming and I think this is actually the first Easter that I realize the magnitude of this holiday. It's the first time I have even considered asking the Easter Bunny to go another direction. He will bring some chocolate, cause really that's all they will remember, but that's it this year, no nick nacky stuff from the dollar store!

Reminders

I don't want to get all sappy but these flowers remind me of my mom. I 'm not sure if it's the actual flowers or the colors or what but they make me happy and sad all at the very same time. 

It has been a while since I posted and I miss it, time is just getting away from me. I might start another photography project that kind of forces me to post daily, we shall see. Lots has been happening. We have Monarch butterfly chrysalis in our club house. I feel like a new mom, I mean I bought the milkweed because Ryan wanted it, with no thought to the responsibility it would bring on me.

Then unbeknownst to me the butterflies laid their eggs and we all of a sudden had all these caterpillars. They munched like crazy and then we had all these very fat juicy caterpillars who started falling off the plant. we started putting them back on only later to find out they were on their way to metamorphosis.  But we were vigilant about getting them back on the plant.

Then Rob comes in one day to tell me her found a chrysalis. I felt like I had just acquired a new child. I am so protective of the 5 yes 5 chrysalis that we have I can almost not stand it. I'll write more about this when I actually post the pictures of the whole process.

Otherwise I am taking lots of pictures and feeling pretty good about them sometimes. I'm loving the macro lens, it amazes me every time. For now I must get children to their appropriate houses of knowledge, the time is coming when things will be changing !!!

Special Visit

It's been a long time since I blogged. Busy times, busy times.

This mass of handsome love came over for a little while this morning. 

I'm pretty sure that these speak for themselves. 

All I know is that he can barf on me like no other baby, except for Ryan and he is smiley like no other baby, except Ryan !!!

I'll take it almost, any day !

Now, how to convince his mom to have another baby, did I mention he is #3 in the pecking order!

Shoot and Edit Week 13-Up

Shoot and Edit - Week 13

I haven't ever participated in a shoot and edit but I think it's time. 

I'm still working on the art of editing, doesn't seem to come very naturally for me. 

I also just started shooting in RAW and have found that I love it! 

Today I'm linking up with Ashley at Ramblings and Photos

So here is the SOOC :

Dad's Hands, oh and I guess this could work for UP, we are on the roof. 

 

Here is my crop and texture edit.

I did it all while ignoring my children, I'm so proud.

                                          Before                                                                   After

  

Growing Up

I was thinking tonight about how fast my kids are growing up and how desperate I am to keep them with me forever. Really I can say that with all honesty at this moment because they are all in bed asleep. No really the thought of them out in the world making all the decisions for themselves really scares me. I mean really they are young and don't always make good choices and what will happen when there is no one there to tell them what they are doing is dangerous and could really hurt them.

All this has come about since Ryan turned 10 a few weeks ago. Really it's my first kid in double digits and the reality is heartbreaking. I know he thought I was psycho when I started crying taking him to school that day. He doesn't like to see people sad but he certainly didn't understand.

Putting the kids to bed tonight I actually got to rock Tyler and sing a song to him. It was the first time in a long time, he likes his dad to put him to bed. As I sat rocking him I started thinking about all the different bedtime routines that we have gone through and how they have all had to evolve as the kids have gotten older. Singing has been a part of all their routines during the younger years but now the big kids need to talk and then read a little on their own before they decide to turn the lights out and go to sleep. Time is flying by and I am trying very hard to embrace every moment with each person in my life. I can only as God to remind me to continue living in the moment, He will take care of me.