Weekly Summary ~ 6/28/15 - 7/4/15

I'm a couple weeks behind in posting.  Again.  {sigh}  

But we're having a great summer!  
Plenty of fun.  
Lots of busy.  
Hence the lack of blog posts.  :)  
Just enjoying life.

I am keeping up with my 365 Photo challenge though.

{June 28: Timeless Beauty}

I don't know about you, but I think this Black Swallowtail is quite beautiful. Or in this case handsome as it is a male.  :)

{June 29: Let's Go}

On Friday I said to my husband, "Let's go to Ohio tomorrow to pick up some Monarch eggs and caterpillars." He, knowing how much it meant to me, agreed to drive. We met up with a very generous lady who so graciously shared some of her babies with me. I now have 16 tiny caterpillars and 6 eggs. Late last night 4 eggs hatched and I stayed up to watch 2 of them. This little guy seemed to take forever to chew his way out of his egg. But, tired as I was, I stayed up to witness his entrance into this world. Here's hoping they all make it to butterflydom.  :)

{June 30: Thankful}

Like many I am thankful for many things. My faith, my freedom, my health ... but today especially I am thankful for this crazy crew that I call my family. We spent the day at Idlewild and had a super fun time. We came home exhausted, which means it was a great day! Keira took this picture with her phone since mine was running low on battery and is being used for my pic of the day with her permission.  :)

{July 1: Wonder in the World}

Or in this case, a wonder out of the world. Tonight's full moon is spectacular! Have you seen it? If you missed it, there will be another at the end of July. The only month in 2015 with two full moons.

{July 2: Adventurous}

The kids and I love to be adventurous and go for walks and hikes to see what we can find. This particular evening Alex and I saw hundreds of these damselflies while out exploring. A few of them were nice enough to be still while I photographed them.

{July 3: Leadership}

Of my three children Keira has the greatest leadership traits. She was born a leader. I can remember when she was in 3rd grade her teacher asked me what her strengths and her weaknesses were. My answer was the same for both. She's a natural born leader, which is a great trait, but that also makes her tend to be bossy and other kids don't like that too much.  :)  She's a great person who has a bright future ahead of her.
This photo was chosen as one of the Top Shots of the day! WOOT! 

{July 4: A Reflection of Me}

If you know me, then you know that I am a butterfly lover. I raise Monarchs every summer and this year am raising Black Swallowtails also. This gorgeous girl decided to arrive today. Our 4th butterfly on the 4th of July.  :)  I have had people tell me that when they see a butterfly, they think of me, so it may be a stretch, but this beauty is a reflection of me.   :)

Linking with Tamar:



A rundown of our week:
June 28-30
Nick got home from his Bible Quizzing trip in Boston Sunday night.  He had a good time and earned a silver award.  The quizzers don't compete against each other.  They try to answer the questions as best they can and are basically graded based on their answers.  Nick's voice was very scratchy when he got home so I suspect he was shouting a lot.  :/
Monday the boys had their 6-month dental check ups.  Both got two thumbs up.
Cupcake, one of our Black Swallowtails, decided to join us.  We had kept Rocky a couple days because of the weather and once we set him free, Cupcake eclosed.  He had to stay with us until Wednesday because of the rain.
Keira had a violin lesson Monday evening.
Doug took a vacation day on Tuesday and we spent the day at Idlewild.  We had a great time!  Nick decided to be brave and try riding some things that always frightened him starting with the roller coaster.  Once he got off that first ride, he got right back on.  In fact, the lines were so short that we rode it several times in a row before moving on to other things.  He also road the ferris wheel with me.  He freaked out a little but I helped calm him down.  We prayed and talked about how safe he was and then he was fine.  We even got stopped at the very top and he did great!  It clouded up a couple times and sprinkled on us a little but overall we had a great day.  Not too hot and no downpours.
July 1-4
Wednesday we had an appointment at PA Cyber to get Keira enrolled for the fall.  We had a little trouble finding the place.  We turned at the correct turn but couldn't find the office, so we stopped and asked a woman who was outside having a smoke break.  Turns out we were at the right building, just on the wrong side.  :)
Since we were already in Wexford, we tried to find Trader Joe's which is just down the road a few miles but I went left when I should have gone right and we didn't find it.  And our stupid GPS is no help at all.  I think we need a new one.
On the way back we stopped at Barnes & Noble so the boys could use gift cards that they had.  Oh the drama!  Wanting to buy toys instead of books.  And not having enough for what they wanted.  I'm such a mean mom sometimes.  :)
July 2 was the 30th anniversary of my dad's death.  I shared some pictures on Facebook.  I don't have very many pictures of my dad, so the few that I do have are precious to me.  It is hard to believe that he has been gone for 30 years.
Doug had Friday off for the holiday.  We didn't really do anything.  Puttered around outside.  He pulled weeds in the vegetable gardens and I pulled weeds in my butterfly garden.
On Saturday we were going to visit Doug's parents but they were coming our way anyway, so they visited us instead.  Doug cooked dinner and we had a nice time talking about their upcoming 50th anniversary party.  Pickle, our 4th Black Swallowtail butterfly, had eclosed before they came so I hung onto her until they got here so they could see her.  We set her free shortly after they arrived.
We were going to go see fireworks but everyone wanted to stay close to home.  Our neighbors up the road set them off so we could see them a little.  There are trees in the way.  Honey doesn't like fireworks so she was very close by the whole night.

Tweet