Jack 'o Lantern

Well, here is my attempt at a free-hand pumpkin carving. Not bad, eh? Audrey supervised the process (meaning, she refused to pull up her sleeves and help dig out the pumpkin guts). Will have more pics after trick-or-treating.

The Butterflies Emerge

Two out of five of our butterflies have exited their chrysalides, and it looks like another one is on his way out. They will just hang out for a couple of hours, pumping their wings until they get blood circulating in them. Then they'll probably be ready to eat. We'll mix up some sugar water and soak some tissues in it. They will then extract the nectar from the tissues. This has been a really cool thing to see. Nature is fascinating.

The Cookie Monster

Hey Mommy, can I have these instead of rice cereal... puhleeeezzzz??

If only I could figure out how to open this darn package.

Just one little taste? Pretty please?

No?
Fine. I'll just gnaw my way through to the good stuff.

Quote of the Day

"I don't have to eat my vegetables because I'm a super hero. I save horses and bunnies."

--Audrey

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

Audrey's preschool class took a field trip to a pumpkin patch today. Good weather, lots of fun. There were hay rides, train rides, pumpkin picking, bunny petting, corn grinding, and more.

Hmmm... which one would be the heaviest pumpkin for Mommy to have to carry back to the wagon?

Just. too. many. choices

A girl after my own heart. She is so gentle with animals, and they respond well to her, too.

Wish I could get her to make her own food at home...

She had a wonderful time. I did, too, although Lila kept tugging on the camera strap and trying to eat my lens, so I didn't get a whole lot of really good photos, but you get the gist.

A Daughter's Revenge

Yesterday was a very long day in which most of my responses to Audrey's questions consisted of "not right now," "in a minute," I can't do that with you at the moment," "hold on a sec," etc. So last night I think she tried to get even with me for failing to give her the attention she wanted throughout the day. After supper, I left the girls with Fred and ventured off to the grocery store to pick up a few essentials. As I'm contentedly strolling through Kroger with my grocery cart, taking my sweet time and enjoying the break from the children, a lady comes up behind me and says, "ummm...you've got something stuck on your back. It looks like a Post-It ...or something." Sure enough, at some point prior to my leaving the house, Audrey, in a brilliant passive aggressive maneuver, had slapped a virtual "kick me" sign right between my shoulder blades. And it wasn't one of the small, square, subdued yellow post-its. Nope. It was one of those index card size hot pink ones that you just can't miss. I had been obliviously shopping away with it on my back for 45 minutes before this lady took pity on me. Now I know all the staring was NOT because of my pretty new lipstick. :(

That was revenge incident #1.

Revenge incident #2 takes place at 4:30 a.m. this morning when Audrey wanders into my bedroom and wakes me from a dead sleep, sobbing that she can't find her ballerina shoes. Conversation is as follows:
Me: "Honey, did you wear them to bed?"
Audrey: (sniff sniff) "I didn't."
Me: "Where did you leave them before you went to bed?"
Audrey: (sob) "I don't KNOW!!"
Me: "Well, we'll find them in the morning, please go back to bed."
Audrey: "But I want them WIGHT NOW!"
Me: (wanting to argue but realizing the futility in doing so) "Fine, I'll find them."
----I get up, get my robe on, and notice the shoes sitting on the trunk at the end of my bed--
Me: "Oh look, here they are! Mommy found them. Here you go."
Audrey: "But I (sniff sniff) don't want them (sniff) now."
---She shuffles back to bed, leaving me with shoes in hand and completely exasperated.

Child: 2
Mom: 0

Caterpillar update

So all 5 little critters have climbed to the top of the cup, hung upside down, and each has formed his own chrysalis (not a cocoon, I found out. I just learned there's a difference between the two). It was really quite creepy. Within only a couple of hours after assuming position, it looked as if the soft skin of the caterpillars began to melt, morphing into this grayish substance that was rather gross looking. This hormone-driven pupal stage will last about a week. As soon as the chrysalides harden a bit, I will transfer them into the butterfly house to hatch.

Creepy crawlies

Okay, this is my first attempt at blogging. Since I'm not a scrapbooker, I thought this would be a good way to note the ups and downs of our daily family life. I'm always telling myself to jot down funny or poignant remarks my daughter Audrey makes, or to record the little milestones in Lila's life as she moves through infancy at warp speed. But before I know it, the moment's passed, and I'm scrambling to recall just what it was I wanted to note in the first place. So perhaps this blog will help me to be a better recorder of events.

My first post as a blogger pertains to ... caterpillars! My critter-loving daughter just adores anything slimy, slinky, spiny, crawly, or creepy. Basically, she likes anything that moves and always wants to know more about it. Some of you remember the hornworm experience we had a few months ago; well, now we decided to see if we could transform caterpillars into butterflies. So we sent off for some caterpillars that would become Painted Lady butterflies. After a long flight from California to Alabama, five little fuzzy guys settled down and got to work. They started eating, and eating, and eating (remember "The Very Hungry Caterpillar?" yeah well, it's not merely fiction). After just 5 days, they grew from the size of a fingernail clipping to about 2 1/2 inches in length, and are now about 4 times the width they started out. I think if you watched closely enough, you could actually see them grow. They should start creating their cocoons in a couple of days or so. Then we'll transfer them to a mesh butterfly house and wait for them to emerge!