Butterfly

We also have a number of chrysalises on out retaining wall in the back yard. We got a shot of this guy yesterday.

 Today, he looked like this!

Hopefully the others will emerge soon. We're still loving all the milkweed we planted outside. :)

Reading

Jack found a new animated book for his iPad today. He thought it was awesome and had a grand time reading it tonight. It was hilarious!

July 4th!

Happy July 4th! We had a fun day filled with swimming and watermelon. lol. After declaring that they weren't into it this year, we even managed to see a few fireworks. Yay!

The boys got to be ice archaeologists today and
uncover some treasures in ice blocks.
Jason is trying to break up his ice.

Jack was a pro at this type of destruction.
He had is treasures discovered first. LOL

I gave Shawn his ice block while he was in the pool.
It definitely made the experience more challenging - he
could hardly find the block of ice in the pool. LOL
It is under his hand here.

They even played nicely and all swam in the pool
at the same time!

Isaac made Jack's dream come true and gave
him a bit of watermelon. Jack loved it!

Jason chowed down on his chunk, too!

Spacemen

Some astronauts found our house this evening and asked if they could rest and refresh at our space station. Good thing they found that we were friendly!

Puppeteer

Seems we have a mad sock puppet creator "monster" on the loose here...

Question of the Week

What would you say is something that comes easily to Shawn?

I would say something that comes easily to Shawn is empathy. When he was very, very young, we had a picture book of children's faces showing different emotions such as sadness, happiness, surprise, and shock among others. Shawn could not look at the children who were upset. He would anticipate the pages with the upset kids and cry every single time we got to those pages. It was so heartbreaking to see him so upset! (And of course, it was one of Jason's favorite books, so we saw it often. lol) 

Shawn's empathy for others has continued. He is always there to console one of us when we get upset. He was known for extending kindness and concern for others at school. It's really heartwarming how big his heart is. 💙 

What would you say is something that comes easily to Jason?

I would say that problem solving comes easily to Jason. He enjoys figuring out the solutions to just about any problem, and he's usually right. He has very strong analytical skills, and he often surprises me with the insights and strategies he uses. It's pretty exciting to see that mind of his at work! 😊

What would you say is something that comes easily to Jack?

Something I would say that comes easily to Jack is his willingness to try new things. He is always ready to jump in and try something new, no matter how scary it might be. Roller coasters - no problem. Throwing himself off of some perilous height - easy peasy. He just goes for it. I so love that about him! 😍

Cute Big Boy Saturday

He didn't care for his brothers splashing around and being "too rough" in the big pool. We solved that problem by adding a little wading pool. This guy LOVES his new little personal pool! He wants to sit in it and hang out all day long. :)