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!!