Little Fish

They spent all day in the pool today. All day. Jack has an official goggle tan now, too. LOL. They are going to sleep well tonight.

Summer Bucket List 2019

Finally...

All three were super happy to swim today. Yay!

Friday Five

Well, somehow our summer break is flying by. The boys have now finished their 2nd week of break (only weeks left for them!) and I've finished my first (8 weeks left for me). Someone make the time slow down a little so we can all catch our breath!

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Jack has a loose molar. He came to me on Monday, asking for me to pull it. I told him it wasn't ready and to keep wiggling it--maybe that would get it ready by Friday. I had hardly opened my eyes this morning when he was back wanting me to pull it. He was most upset that I told him again it wasn't ready. Oops! lol

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Today was the first day in a long time that we had actual sunshine outside! It even hit 78*. Finally, we can get the pool out and set it up. The boys can't wait!

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Shawn has asked to add going to Toy Story 4 to the bucket list, so we are going to try to find a time in the not too distant future to do that. They are all looking forward to that.

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We are all plugging along on our summer reading. Jason has finished a book and is now into a second one. Shawn is 8 chapters into a book he is reading (all on his own!) by Henry Winkler. Jack is pouring over his Dog Man and Captain Underpants books regularly. He might even know them by heart at this point. LOL.

Summer Laziness

Hanging out in our pjs. One playing with the marble run while the other plays on the keyboard. This summer thing rocks. ❤️

Shawn's got the concentration tongue out and going! LOL

Summer Bucket List 2019

Today we did the first thing on our summer bucket list. This one is something that Jason really wanted to do - visit a museum in Santa Barbara. This place is an interactive museum filled with lots of hands on activities and displays. The boys had a blast!

Push! Jack was trying to get water flowing through the pump. It took a bit of effort,
but he made it happen! lol

Jason loved building a structure with these pieces.

Jason made some designs to fly in the wind tube.

Making a little music on the giant guitar.

This electronic screen projected on the wall in front of us.
So cool!

Reading about sea creatures.

Looking through the glass floor to the lower levels of the museum.

Making thunder and rain.

Making music with the wind and sound tubes.
Shawn is spinning the wheel.

Jack and Shawn spent some time in a sound booth.

She's Here!

From this...

...to this!

This butterfly takes the prize for most original chrysalis location! Love it!

More Target Fun

Jason: "The name for soda in Spanish is hilarious." 

Isaac: "What do you mean?"

Jason (reading the Target sign): "'Gassy' Osas?" **translated to Gassy Bears**

LOL

Monarch Cycle

I've found that I am running on empty this weekend. We've done a lot of lounging around because of it. ;) That said, we still managed to head outside and check on our monarchs.

1. The round, white egg.

2. Here is a tiny caterpillar. It's probably only a week old, or so.
You can often find the baby caterpillars around small holes in the leaves.

3. They eat like crazy and get nice and large.

4. They attach to something and form a "J" to prepare to form their chrysalis. 

5. This is a freshly formed chrysalis. It still has the bands around the top of
it and it's still soft. You can also see the black remnants of the caterpillars
body at the top of it. That will usually fall off.

6. Once the chrysalis dries, it is a bright green.
It's definitely got a firmer texture at this point.

7. In 10-14 days the chrysalis thins out and you can see the butterfly inside.
This particular chrysalis is the one that was formed by the "J" in the picture #4 above.
This was 14 days after the chrysalis was formed. (And the butterfly
emerged from here about 20-40 minutes after I took this picture.)

He is the butterfly that came from the above chrysalis (pictures #4 and #7)! He's (males have
two dark spots in the orange on either side of its body) drying his wings.

The process is so fascinating!

Conversations With 11 Year Olds

After watching his dad talk to several people at Target...

Jason (to Isaac): “You’re very friendly. I think it’s one of your fatal flaws.”

Shawn: “Yeah, it’s one of my favorite flaws.”

Isaac: "Thanks?"

It's all a matter of perspective, it seems. lol

Summer!

via GIPHY

We're all on vacation now!

Tomorrow is my last day of school. I'm a bit exhausted, so I've got nothing in me to be creative. Instead, we'll focus on our outdoor babies. Two more emerged from their chrysalises this afternoon. Here is one of them. You can see the remnants of his (males have the black dots in the orange on the lower wings) chrysalis hanging from the top of the inside of the brick. :) He stayed there drying his wings for about an hour before he flew away. It's so neat!

Waaaaaayyy Back Wednesday

4 years ago today...

Our guys playing outside on their first day of summer break. :)

Look, Mom

"I'm an old man with a goatee..."

First Day of Summer Vacay...

Jack's had his bag packed since Saturday. He's ready for his adventure to begin, and he doesn't take too kindly to mom saying that she has 4 more days of work. (To be fair, mom isn't taking too kindly to her having 4 more days of work either. Ahem.)

I've decided it must be the phrasing I'm using that's throwing him off. He's on "summer vacation" I keep telling him. Vacation means trip. So...yeah. lol!

It's going to be a LONG week for all of us!

Happy Father's Day

We are so lucky to have this guy in our lives...

One of my all time favorites of this crew--and one that truly shows
his love for his boys. Melts my heart every time I see it. ❤️

Happy Father's Day, Isaac!

Butterfly Cuddles

Jason was thrilled to get the chance to hold our newest butterfly.