end of school year celebration

 To celebrate our last day of school, we went on a "field trip" to see the Arch.

prepositions

Ethan and Jude reciting the preposition jingle.

Lainey's 2nd Birthday

Lainey's birthday was a month ago but better to get it on the old blog late rather than never. Our Lainey-Lou has entered the land of toddlerhood. She keeps us laughing, at times can create quite a bit of drama, is always talking up a storm (sometimes at high decibels) and has been testing out her stubborn side lately as well. It was fun to see her enjoy the festivities of her birthday and know what to expect from a birthday party...singing the birthday song along with everyone, trying her hardest to blow out those candles but as hard as she tried the air that came out of her mouth blew her bangs more than it blew the flame on the candles. And she opened her presents without anyone prompting her or helping her. Such a big girl!

 We had a Very Hungry Caterpillar theme.

And just to show a little bit of this sweet, energetic, funny girl...I added a couple of videos. And yes I was letting Lainey jump on her bed like a maniac. Probably not good either that we were laughing at her and encouraging her. 

And I could not for the life of me figure out how to flip this video right side up, so if you turn your head to the left or flip your computer screen to the right, then viewing it is a little easier. This girl has some jumping skillz, for sure.

science class

This year for science we have been learning about flying creatures. From birds to bats to butterflies and every other flying insect. So what better way to really absorb all the different facts about these amazing creatures than to grow as many of them as we could in our house. Our home for the past 3 months has been incubating, hatching, molting, growing and metamorphosis-ing (don't think that is the scientific word for that). At times a bit crazy and a bit zoo-y but I can guarantee you my kids have loved every minute of it. How amazing to see God's amazing handiwork in real life...not just out of a book.

We started off with ladybug larvae and watched them pupate and then emerge into their adult beetle stage. This is when I wish I had a fancy, schmancy camera so I could really focus up close to see these little guys but this is as good as it gets with what we've got. 

butterfly chrysalis'

At the same time we were fattening up our Painted Lady butterfly caterpillars and watching them make chrysalis'. After about 10 days they emerged into beautiful butterflies and with their long proboscis' slurped on slices of watermelon that we set out for them.

Next we incubated some chicken eggs for about 21 days and out of 12 eggs we ended up with 8 that actually hatched. We intended to let them grow for a couple of weeks and then pass them on to someone who would want to raise them. But the more we started thinking about it the more we wanted to raise a few in our backyard. Crazy I know...but what a great experience for the kids right? 

Jason is in the process of building a chicken coop out of free pallet wood (later post to come) and the kids are so excited to go and collect the eggs (in a few months when they're big enough). Ansley is just glad that she doesn't have to say good-bye to Chubbie, Alice, Weak, Tiger or Rainbow (unless they are roosters of course).

 And Bella has enjoyed "guarding" the chicks for us. Thankfully she is declawed but she still loves to watch them in their brooder box.

I should have taken some more recent ones because they are much bigger than these cute, fuzzy ones a few weeks ago. So if the rain would hold off for a fews days we can finish our coop and get these chickens outside and in their own house...and more importantly out of mine. They're kind of noisy, dirty birds when they're all cooped up in a brooder box.

And our latest insect we are waiting to hatch are Preying Mantises...which we've learned are also great for gardens. So in a few weeks we will be proud owners of about 100-200 mantis nymphs. Yep, a bit nervous about that one.

And because I am my mother's daughter, once she told me about a huge puddle at the park that had hundreds of tad poles in it, I ran over and gathered about 5 so we can see them grow into frogs. New life in the spring is an amazing thing to see and experience. To be continued...

best cat ever

She lets my kids put her in this baby doll stroller and push her around. Can you get a better pet than that?

sunny

And the very next week we had sunny skies and didn't even need a jacket. Gotta love the mid-west weather. This is our Easter family portrait. Used the timer and propped up my camera on the deck. Doesn't make for good photography, but since we were all dressed up I couldn't pass up the chance to get a family pic.

now catching up

This was from our last big snow, which happened to be the most (inches wise) we had all winter. It was just a little late in the season where I was wishing and hoping for spring at that point, so I wasn't so excited about this one...although it was still beautiful. Our birds appreciated the food.

 I think we ended up with 8 inches total.

 Enough to make a snow igloo...

 and snowmen

back to present day

A little ABC singing from Lainey...with her rosy red winter cheeks.

EP #8 - The finale

Our hike on the Makapu'u Point Lighthouse trail. That was probably one of my favorite overlook views on Oahu!

 A look back at Kailua, the Mokes, Kaneohe Bay and the Kaneohe Bay Marine Base Ulupau crater.

 Koko Head crater.

 The beautiful cobalt blue ocean! I miss that.

EP #7

I love these pictures! These patio furniture chairs were worn by the time we moved from Hawaii. Lainey loved to be outside (still does) and we would often go and sit outside to pass the time in the afternoon. We sat out there a lot, so it was funny to see how many pictures Ethan took of us sitting out there. Another entertainer was the cars that would drive by. We saw quite a few of our friends (that would cut through our neighborhood) on their way to Kailua or over the mountain to Honolulu. They would honk and we would wave. Good times!

 Ethan took tons of pictures of everyone playing in the backyard too. Now I know why they all needed baths EVERY night.

So glad spring is pretty much here. We can do a lot more of this outside stuff again.