Born to be Free...

Today we decided to release the butterflies and the lady bugs into the 'wild'! Out of the 5 caterpillars, 4 turned into butterflies! (One opened the chrysalid, but never made it out for some unknown reason and its wings dried inside the chrysalid...)

The lady bugs had eaten all of the raisins we put in the habitat, so we decided they needed to be free too since they had been trying to fly around their small enclosed space.

Below are pictures of the release... Born to be free!

Katie's Dream Come True!

A couple of weeks ago Katie took the 3rd grade TAKS test, in which she prepared really hard for! Her test scores were awesome! She scored 'exceptional' in one area, and was very close to making exceptional in the other area, but still scored way above average! We told her we wanted to reward her, and she asked if she could ride a horse... So below are some pictures from Katie's dream come true!

Memorial Day, Monday, May 31st, 2010

The Super Silly Brown Family on their horses... ready to ride!

(Chris's horse was named Stormy, and mine was named Calley...)

Katie on her horse named Coco...

Nathan on his horse named Marcus...

Katie on the trails...

Nathan on the trails...

Our ride was from 11 am to 12 pm, and it was HOT... but really FUN!!

http://www.horseridingfun.com/adventurerides.html

Hi-Ho-Opoly...

Normally tonight would be a school-night, but since tomorrow is Memorial Day and there is no school, we decided to have a game-night for the kiddos... Katie got to pick a game first, then Nathan picked...

Katie is a huge fan of horses, so she chose 'Horse-Opoly'... and of course she won!

Nathan chose Hi-Ho Cherry-O... and believe it or not, he won MOST of the games we played!

It was quite the HI-HO-OPOLY night! Hehe!

(Update on) Caterpillar's, Lady Bugs, and Ants... Oh my!

Okee-dokee folks! All creature have transformed... or at least began transforming!

Today 1 of the 5 chrysalids hatched a Painted Lady butterfly!! Yippee! We've been watching the butterfly 'air-out' its wings, but still waiting to see how it uses its straw-like tongue to drink the sugar water and eat melons and strawberries!

In this picture we see two lady bugs, but I promise there are about 10-15 of them in the habitat. I took this picture to show the raisins they love to eat!

FINALLY! The ants arrived in our mailbox! This has been a really neat process to watch! The ants began working on their tunnels almost immediately! Apparently I was supposed to put a small piece of fruit into their habitat, but I read those instructions AFTER I put in a couple chunks of graham cracker pieces... but they sure are eating it up!

Must be nice to be 9...

It must be nice to be 9 in today's society... I surely don't remember having awesome pampering parties like this! Over the weekend Katie attended her friend Sadie's 9th birthday party at this place called PINK POKKA DOT; I was SO wishing I was 9 years old again...

Below is Katie's eyes getting soothed by cucumber slices...

This is Katie getting make-up applied...

Katie getting her hair done...

Katie getting a Paraffin spa hand treatment...

Katie getting finger and toe nails painted...

OK, so last night Katie told me she really liked that Paraffin spa treatment; she's lucky mommy has had a Paraffin spa machine in the closet for a couple of years now... ooh-la-la!!

Bluebonnet's Birdie Barn

I was making one of these lovely birdhouses for Katie's 3rd grade teacher's end-of-year present from the class, and Katie yells...

"I want one for Bluebonnet"!

Bluebonnet is Katie's pet bird; a small blue Parolette, so off to Michael's Craft store I went for a second time yesterday so Katie could make her own. I am actually very proud of her... she painted the whole thing all by herself, and told me where she wanted the decorations to be hot-glued! Could she maybe have inherited her mommy's craftiness skills? Hmmm...

Here is Katie painting her Birdie Barn... she even picked the colors.

Katie painting the last part... the roof.

Here is Bluebonnet enjoying her new Birdie Barn; complete with farm animals and fresh farm food... of course we threw some millet inside the hole, but she was very skeptical to venture inside.

Great job Katie Bug!!

Change is good!

Katie and Nathan's five caterpillars have been eating and eating and growing and growing! This morning one of them has attached to the top and has begun 'curling' itself to make its chrysalid! When they are all inside their chrysalid, they will be moved into their butterfly mansion to hatch!

Also, Katie's lady bugs were in their larva stage, but all have moved forward and are now in their pupa stage! I had never known what a lady bug looks like before they become lady bugs... they look kind of scary actually! But, they too have all 'curled' up and are in the process of morphing in beautiful bugs! In this picture you can see a bunch of round things clinging to the globe... yep, that's them!

Poor Nathan is still waiting for his shipment of ants to arrive in the mail, but as soon as they get here I will post pictures of them too!

Field Day? More like Fun Day!

Today was Field Day at the kid's school today! I was fortunate enough to be a parent volunteer for both their time slots... it was SO MUCH FUN!!

Nathan's grade (Pre-K), Kindergarten, and 1st grade had field day first, followed by 2nd and 3rd graders; Katie's time-slot. (The 4th and 5th graders were last.) There were so many cool events! Back in my day Field Day consisted of running laps around the track, climbing a rope, and doing every and anything track-n-field related... not anymore apparently! Each child is paired with a buddy and they get to run around completing really fun tasks. When the task is finished they get a hole punch for the specific task they completed on a card that is safety-pinned to their backs. After so many hole punches they can get a bottled water and a popsicle!

Events included: Bean bag toss, Bubble gum bubble blowing, Ice melting, water balloon toss, Monkey bar races, Noodle sword fights, Parachute catch, Twister Hopscotch, Hula Hoop challenges, Body Bumpers, and MUCH more fun events! I'm jealous!

The first station I volunteered at was the Ice Melt. Each child got a single piece of ice and had to melt it as fast as they could using their hands! This was a perfect task to complete on such a warm and humid day! The second station I volunteered at was the Body Bumpers; kind of like bumper cars, but the children step into these huge inflatable inner tubes and then they bump into each other to try and knock the other down! Awesome!

Below are a couple pictures of Katie and Nathan having a blast!!

Nathan doing the Parachute Catch with an ice-pop in his mouth!

This is Katie doing the Body Bumpers with her buddy! She was laughing so hard and got knocked down shortly after this picture was taken! She loved it!

I gotta get me some of these for the house!!!

Lady bugs, Caterpillars, and ants! Oh My!

Katie, Nathan, Lady bugs, Caterpillars, Ants!

The Spring-time bugs have moved in!

This is our second-annual Brown Bug-ordering Event, but last year we only ordered the Caterpillars; this year we decided to 'expand' the event!

Katie has always had a thing for lady bugs... I think it's because she has grown up with the nickname "Katie-Bug"! (Thanks Aunt Nancy!) So she will get to experience watching the life-cycle of how lady bugs develop into such cute red and black polka-dotted flying buggies...

Nathan got a 'miniature' ant farm from the Target "Dollar-Days" about three weeks ago, but the ants only lasted about three days... so he wanted a 'real' ant-farm this time, and now he will get to see how ants cleverly dig there tunnels. Unfortunately the ants do not get shipped at the same time, so tomorrow I will be sending off my $4 check (for shipping charges) and his ants will soon arrive to join the rest of its 'Bug-friends'...

Lastly, our returning guests this year are the caterpillars that will very soon turn into beautiful Painted Lady Butterflies! Right now they will remain in this lovely condo until they wrap themselves up into chrysalides, then we will remove the lid and affix it to the roof of their netted Butterfly Mansion where they will soon emerge as beautiful Painted Lady Butterflies! Neat-O!

Last year we really enjoyed watching the caterpillar/butterfly life-cycle, and this year we are excited to learn about lady bugs and ants too! I will post more pics as each 'bug' completes their next stage-of-life!

They will ALWAYS be my babies!

Baby Nathan AND Baby Katie...

Today right after I picked the kiddos up from school, I took the kids over to a local park to meet up with a friend of mine from junior high and high school. My friend Stefanie has a daughter named Olivia in the 2nd grade at the same school; one grade under Katie.

They were all playing very nicely together while Stefanie and I were catching-up on old times. Off from the distance I hear, "Mom"! I look over not knowing if it was some other kid's mom being called, and yep, it was mine. "Come push me" she asks! BUT, before I stood up to go over there I snapped this cute picture of BOTH my kids inside the swings that are built for little babies! Too cute! Katie must have disagreed because she put her hand up in front of her face the second she saw me reach for the camera! Then she made me swear NOT to post this pick on Facebook... I agreed, but she didn't mention anything about not posting it on Blogger! Hehehe!!

Of course, she saw me posting this and got mad at me... I still love my little babies anyway!!

Yay for Mommies!

Me and my Mommy!

May 9th, 2010: Mother's Day

A day where mommies everywhere get to feel special, appreciated, and pass out more love! A day where families gather to share yummy foods, each other's company, and swap 'mommy stories'. A day where your kids hand you a handmade card with multiple misspelled words in handwriting you can barely read, but cutely decorated in hearts and stickers of pirates and hello kitty. A day where you wake up from a nap and find a beautiful bouquet of flowers on the coffee table from the hubby. A day of pure uninterrupted relaxation of being a good 'ole couch potato and surfing the Internet. A day of having all meals served to you no matter where you are.

No matter how mommies everywhere spent their day, I hope everyone had as nice a day as I did!

Teacher Appreciation Week!

Magnetic Lapel Pins my kids made for their teachers!

Teacher Appreciation Week is May 3rd through May 7th!

Valley Oaks Elementary school has planned many cool events for the teachers during this week: Monday they were all treated to a Continental Breakfast, Tuesday the kids decorated their teacher's doors, on Wednesday and Thursday all teachers are getting 15 minute chair massages, and on Friday each teacher will be receiving a dessert of their choice! PLUS, all teachers will be getting a 'daily surprise' of some sort! During all of this, the students have been asked to write a special note, color pictures, or give their teacher a gift... we chose the spirit of 'gift-giving'!

In the past I had made interchangeable necklaces using bottle-tops, pictures of just about anything that will fit inside of a 1" circle, a VERY strong magnet, a washer, and a few tiny decorations! So, instead of making the bottle-top into a necklace, we made magnetic lapel pins for each teacher using special pictures in relation to their teaching job. Then we glued a 'tag' on the back with the magnet and wrote a special note on the tag!

The kids really enjoyed helping me make these, and I hope the teachers enjoy them too!

Long Time... No Blog!!

Greetings from me and my poochies!

Well howdy there! It's been quite sometime since I last wrote about anything on here! Life kinda got a wee-bit hectic on my end! Things have slowed down since then, and I hope to blog much more yet again!

Yay me!