Wordless Wednesday - signs of FALL

A story of a butterfly (and some overly excited kids)

Ten days ago, I shared our two new additions.  Today a beautiful butterfly emerged out from darkness.  And so much excitement overtook our house.  We were eating breakfast when Mario shouted out "we have a butterfly".  Not knowing when he had came out of its chrysallis (overnight maybe?), we wanted to give him/her a chance to get outside and start "spreading its wings".

So, we took it outside.

It stepped out of the jar.

Walked and wobbled out into the mulch.  

And then halfway across the sidewalk.  

The poor guy just was not ready to fly yet, so the kids had him crawl back into the jar.  He still needed a little more time to dry off those wings and get them working. They helped him get back into his jar, and took him into the backyard and set it out in the mulch and would check back in a little while.  So, they gobbled up their breakfast as fast as they could, washed up, got dressed, and went back out to check on the little guy.  Well, he was really working his wings this time, and flitted up onto some weeds growing up our deck.

Mario and Max stepped up close and one of them reached out to touch it, startled it, then it flew to a sweet little girl's arm....

After many giggles, the butterfly flitted some more up onto the deck - open.  close.  open.  close.

At this point, I had to tend to my duties inside (aka:  sweet baby Rose) and handed off the camera and trusted these bigger kids to take care of their new friend.....  The kids just *knew* it needed a flower, so another sweet girl picked some roses out front, brought them to the butterfly and somehow, it decided to perch on them next.

Then, these silly kids decided the butterfly needed some special time out at the play center across our yard.  I guess it flitted up to the rope ladder next (as the pictures on my camera continued to tell the story!).  Mario was certainly amazed at this.

And, finally, the butterfly who loved Melody most of all had to say "goodbye" one final time because SHE was his favorite....

Goodbye sweet butterfly. We will never forget the fun you found for us during this glorious August morning!  

++Thank you God for nature, for creation, and for our new friend --- the butterfly --- who created so much fun and smiles and memories for my own young'uns this morning.++

Welcome our new additions....

We received this little guy when he was just a teeny tiny egg.  After he hatched, we fed him milk weed leaves one after another until his transformation into a chrysalis today.  We've done this for multiple summers now, but it's so neat to see how new it is for the youngest in our crew.  Our 3 year old, Pookey, is just amazed at the changes and is now counting down the days til our little caterpillar becomes a beautiful butterfly!  Hopefully two weeks from today, we'll have a butterfly (if we can keep the jar still and safe from curious little hands!).

And, onto our other additions....
We have a mom and dad barn swallow who have nested above our garage light. 

Neil has tried deter them in the past because of the mess they make....

(and this was only after a day or two because I hosed it all down a couple days ago)

The babies hatched last week and we got our first peek then, but they have grown so much in such a short time.  The nest almost looks too small now for them...

And one of my favorite things is that the mom and dad are such good parents and stay so close to them.  They even swoop down at us when we are out front.  It scares poor Melody so much!  But what a great teaching moment on how much parents love and protect their young. 

++ Thank you God for school made easy and teachable moments like this right outside our front door, and for the beautiful additions that you have blessed our family with right now!!  They are precious!!! ++