Here Today Gone Tomorrow

For Dylan's birthday, he received a butterfly garden.  We ordered the caterpillars from the site and received them a week or so later. Unfortunately, they stayed in our hot mailbox overnight and I think they may have gotten cooked.  They never were able to recover. They barely moved, and after a while I was fairly certain they were done.  I ordered more and this time, I made sure to check the mail immediately.  The caterpillars were thriving, moving around a lot and getting bigger.  After a while, they moved upside and started their transformation.  Then one day, they became the beautiful butterflies they were mean to be.  We had decided to keep them for a few days and enjoy them, then release them. Since it was really pretty out. I stuck the garden out on the back porch.  I had a meeting that night and Damien was outside with the kids. He didn't noticed Natalie playing with the garden and well, the butterflies were all dead.  Apparently we are no good at this caterpillar and butterfly thing.  This is the only picture I got of the dead butterflies. Rest in pieces...oh and in peace too

Fried Egg?

It's been so hot already this summer, that people have been doing all kinds of crazy things to prove how  hot it is....including baking cookies and brownies in their cars.  We took the old school approach and tried to fry an egg on the sidewalk.

 After the first egg on tin foil blew away...whoops.  we moved over to an old baking dish.  It never did what I expected but that doesn't mean it wasn't hot enough.

Pool Side Beauty

Safari Greg

I looked into booking Safari Greg for Dylan's birthday party, but he was in the New England area.  BOO.  A mom's group that I am a part of, scheduled him and I was excited that Dylan would still get to see him, and Taylor was still in town to go as well :) 

Natalie waiting in the crowd...

 Safari Greg brought 5 animals and his "favorite" was this corn snake.  His show is very entertaining and informative.  I would recommend it to anyone!! He had one bit where he had 2 kids on stage and an egg.  The egg kept producing more eggs then finally it made this corn snake, but the crowd couldn't see inside the bucket.  The one kid, a girl, refused to reach in and get the "egg" because it was a snake, so he offered it to the boy to reach in and get the "egg". The boy reached in and grabbed it. It caught Safari Greg off guard as he said in over a 100 shows, no one has ever reached in to get it.

 I can't remember, but I think this was a tortoise from Africa. 

 Dylan loved this cayman.  

and of course, Dylan's favorite...a python. I was so proud of him letting Safari Greg wrap it around his neck.

Cousin Taylor's Visit

For the past few years, cousin Taylor has come up for a week to visit with us.  Dylan loves Taylor, and he is so happy to spend any time with her.  As well as Natalie....it was nice to have an extra pair of hands around.  Natalie has become quite the demanding diva when it comes to getting her books read.  Taylor was able to accommodate her demands while I took care of dinner.

 I signed the kids up for free bowling for the summer as Dylan has been begging to go bowling.  We only had to pay for the shoes and the extra game...as one game went by too fast.

 Taylor was not that happy that she lost both games to Dylan.  She made herself happy knowing that he used the little ramp thing for his ball (although she used it once and did worse.  Natalie even wanted to get in on the action.

 Dylan and Taylor had their share of movie time in the afternoons while Natalie napped.  Here they are all snuggled up together in the chair.

 On Friday night, our city had a family fun night hosted by a local church.  Dylan and Taylor were so excited to go.  What I thought would be an hour in the blistering heat, ended up being 2 hours because they were having so much fun.

 There was a huge slip and slide water bounce slide.  They begged to go on it.  Right before we left, I said go for it.  They were so happy.

We can't wait to have you back again next summer, Taylor.

The Many Faces of Natalie

Can she get any cuter?

 Love this big girl smile

Swim Dylan Swim

I signed Dylan up this year from the famous Camp Nickajack. Dylan was in for some fun as he would be learning to swim.  We got in during the first week so we could have all summer to practice.  At Camp Nickajack, you drop the kids off in the parking lot and watch them walk away.  It's kind of sad and nerve racking, but I know it's the best way as kids would cling to their parents if they were at the pool with them.

(notice one girl running back to her mom)

me and princess waited for him to return

When Dylan got in the car the first day, he said, "I drowned"  then he said they pushed him in...HA.  He said "one girl blood" and I was like, what?  "you know" "no I don't know. what are you talking about" "one girl screamed bloody murder" "oh, did you scream bloody murder"  " a little bit"  At least he is honest.

I was warned that day 2 would be the hardest and it was.  Dylan, at breakfast, said I don't want to go back to swim lessons today. I explained that they were expensive and if he didn't go back then the money would come out of his piggy bank.  Of course, he goes, but on the way there he tells me not to sign him up for any more swim lessons.  HA! Day 2 he was already jumping off the diving board.  Day 3, the slide and Day 4 racing others.

The last day of the lessons, the kids to a show, and shark man (that's what Mr. Burt, his coach, called him) showed us his skills. I was so proud of him.  I will load a video of it soon, but until then....here are some pics.

swimming (still needs to learn how to raise his head out of the water and go back in)

 nestea plunging it in face first :)

 slide

 diving

 off the board

 racing

 high fives from Mr Burt from coming in first (wink wink)

 Mr Burt (aka the only person allowed to call him shark man)

Today we went to the pool as I had a meeting there. I told him to stay in the kiddie pool or by the stairs. Not surprised to see him jumping off the side and swimming back. Holding on to the ladder and going down to the bottom and going all around the pool. When I told him stairs, he said "I can go in the deep end. I won't sink." Oh boy am I in for trouble. We will be back at camp next year to learn even more.

Africa on His Mind

Lately, Dylan has become even more obsessed with Africa.  You may remember that last year, he would say that we lived in Africa.  (I guess because he heard me talk about it so much)  This year is different.  I think he understands that it's far away and any time some mentions it, he says, you've been there.

Recently our friend T.K. came over from dinner while he was visiting from South Africa. (I met T.K. in Malawi.  He recently moved to South Africa with his family.) I told Dylan, guess who's coming to dinner.  I said, T.K. from Africa.  His response "that doesn't surprise me" Yes because apparently people from Africa eat with us all the time.

Then the other day we were driving down the road and the conversation progressed from cars, to friends, to Africa.  It went like this....

Dylan "is that Bek's mommy's car"
Me "no that car is white.  his mommy's car is black"
Dylan "why is Bek's face black"
Me "God makes us all different and he made Bek with a black skin. Also Bek is from Africa, lots of people from Africa look like Bek"
Dylan "oh ok (loved it), one day do you think we will live in Africa"
Me "if God wants us to, I guess we will but God has to let us know"

A few weeks ago at VBS, he saw 2 black kids run in the doors, and he looked at me and said...mom, look. I looked and I was like what?  He said, "Africa".   I said not everyone with that skin color is from Africa....gotta figure out how to best explain this to him better. Open to suggestions :)

I have wondered for some time when Dylan would start noticing differences in him and other kids, color of skin, deformities or size. For instance, we get mail from the Smile Train all the time and a while back, Dylan asked to open it one day.  I was waiting for him to ask what was wrong with them, but he never did....but the skin and size is something he has mentioned recently(with his friend from Ethopia and when I was flipping through the channels and stopped on the show "the little couple". He asked are they adults and again I explained how God makes us all different.  Kids are so innocent and I love how accepting he is of everyone and I pray that this continues into his adulthood.

Hollywood