Miscellaneous
- Some fun activities with our homeschool co-op, including: “tech apart” day, bowling and laser tag, volunteering at a local organization that serves our local homeless community, a patriotic art lesson, and an island survival game day
- A couple of baseball games in Dallas
- Some swimming, hopefully
- Build bird houses with some inexpensive bowls, cups, and plates
- Do a watercolor tutorial from Brighter Day Press
- Sun prints (I already have the supplies!)
May Monthly Round-Up: Butterflies, Mother's Day, Yetis, + Summer
I started a monthly round-up last month, so I’m sitting down again to do one for May.
It was a sweet, busy month. We’re not far into June, but when I looked through photos I have from last month, some of those things seem like they were multiple months ago. Time is weird sometimes.
Here are some highlights from our May, which was really just a couple of weeks ago.
BUTTERFLIES
My girl got a National Geographic butterfly kit from her Paw for her birthday. It comes with a voucher to order Painted Lady caterpillars when you’re ready. So, we decided to do it a few weeks after she got it. The caterpillars arrived, and we got them set up in their jar. The info packet says you’ll get five, but she got six. I think it took about seven-ish days for them to start making their chrysalises. Only three appeared to have made it through the process as only three were hanging from the jar lid. The others ended up in chrysalises but were on the bottom of the jar. But when I transferred the three that were hanging, Ro said we needed to keep the others just in case. As you can expect, she was right, and one of the ones that was on the bottom of the jar emerged from its’ chrysalis as well. We got it into the larger container with the others and observed them for a day, then released them. It was a neat learning experience for her.
MOTHER’S DAY
Mother’s Day is really special to me. I always, of course, think about my mom (who passed away when I was 10) and my Memom (who pretty much raised me after my mom died and passed away herself 5 years ago). I desperately wish they were still here with me and my family. But, I’m a mom too now. And it is really, really, really one of my very favorite titles and responsibilities in my life. So, I’m just really grateful that I get to celebrate that and be loved by my children.
The actual day was a good one! My kids (and husband) celebrated me well. We went to church (Matt spoke, and it’s worth a listen), then I chose to go to a restaurant we had not been to in a long time—La Cuisine de Maman. They gave me thoughtful gifts that I really like! And we spent the rest of the day at home together.
Waiting to be seated for lunch. The restaurant–La Cuisine de Maman–is on the grounds of Vermilionville, which is a really cool and beautiful historic and folklife park that is situated alongside the Vermilion River in Lafayette, LA.
My gifts! A LEGO set to add to my Botanicals collection, a 10 oz. YETI that my bud picked out for me, a super cute set of anklets that my girl picked out for me, and a beautiful great blue heron art print from a local artist.
YETI DRINK DATES
As I just noted in the photo above, my bud got me this little YETI for Mother’s Day because I had mentioned that I liked them! My girl already had one from a couple of years back. So, I guess B felt left out. Ha. He decided to get him one with his own money for his weekly coffee.
Since we all had our own, we decided to have a YETI tea time one evening when Daddy had a meeting out. We had a few other YETI drink dates in May as well. And they’re just the best.
Ro made place cards for the occasion. Sweet girlie!
PLANNING SUMMER
Our entire Summer isn’t planned out, but I did manage to get a few things set in stone. I also have several things that don’t require much pre-planning saved in my brain (or maybe on a piece of paper somewhere) that I’d like to do when it works out.
A few things we have planned:
A few things I’d like to do at some point:
Some impromptu extra “school” time outdoors this afternoon: Finding tracks and identifying them 🦝 + picking dandelions, etc. and watching a timelapse video of how they morph from bloom to seed.
My babies worked SO hard yesterday getting ready for a really big garage sale at our church. Proud of them.
Currently 🦁🎥🌾🌮👟🐅🍪☕️🧱
Reading: Just finished reading “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe” to my son. We’re 4 chapters in on “Prince Caspian” now. I found this whole 1970s Chronicles of Narnia set at a thrift store for either $4 or $5!
Watching: @mtt and I just finished watching “A Gentleman in Moscow.” I liked it.
Researching: Countertop grain mills. I think it would be so amazing to mill our own flour.
Purchasing: Lots of Christmas gifts. ‘‘Tis the season. 🎄 My grandfather graciously gives me money to purchase my own gifts. So more specifically, I just purchased myself a Masienda tortilla press and masa. Something I’ve wanted for a while, but just couldn’t justify. But that’s what makes it a good gift!
Wearing: I got a new pair of classic Vans. Sized up half a size for some toe wiggle room (because I wear barefoot shoes a lot of the time and can’t do a tight toe box anymore), and they are so comfortable.
Enjoying: Took my kiddos to the zoo here recently. It’s not very big, but they’re making some improvements as of late. My kids have visited with their grandparents a lot in the last few months, and they were so excited to show me around because it had been years since I’d been. We had the best morning there.
Eating: I’m making gingerbread cookies this week. This is my favorite recipe! In the past, I’ve just mixed powdered sugar and milk until I get a consistency for icing I like. But I think I’ll try a royal icing this year.
Drinking: Bone broth hot chocolate. The recipe calls for chicken bone broth, but I actually prefer beef. It’s really good either way, though! My kids have actually had the opportunity to have packaged hot chocolate several time recently, and they wouldn’t drink it because they said it wasn’t good.
LEGO-ing: I got 3 Christmas Polar Bears sets for 70% off after Christmas last year. Saved them and got them out this week to do with B and Ro. Fun times.
Favorite lemonade, for sure. Basil ginger. From a local favorite place to eat—Taco Sisters. The food is good too. 😊
Easy Peasy Seedsy Valentines
I went with a cheesy title to match the cheesy Valentines I’m showing you here. Honestly, I’m super proud of these. I saw a few seed Valentines floating around Instagram and loved some I saw with silly sayings stamped out like this to match the plant. So, I made my own. As far as I know, they’re original. The one on the yellow paper is a bit of a stretch, but I still like it!
Zinnias are such a FUN and easy flower to grow, so this is the perfect, long lasting Valentine to gift kids and gal pals alike! And they’re not candy, which is something I appreciate.
I used stamps and some leftover linen-y card stock paper, but if you’re in a big hurry or don’t want to take the time to stamp it out, it would still be super cute to write or print some on whatever paper you have!
Some Favorite iPhone Photos From December
I’ve been using Portrait mode on my iPhone a lot more for some reason. And that’s resulted in several pictures I super love. Here are several from December:
Making an “About Me” book (complete with a hat 😍) at our homeschool co-op day
I’d say I can’t believe I haven’t printed and framed this yet, but I totally can believe it. Planning on changing that soon. When I do print, I use Walgreens sometimes, but my very favorite place to get prints and more from is Parabo Press (use code WSNSCS for $10 off your first order).
Meet Soggy Soggy. He likes us because we feed the fish, and they feed him.
Asked to go fishing. Caught 13, I think.
All her pose. And all her choice of bow. I love both.
A Christmas art walk in his beloved, but very oversized Braves jacket
At that same art walk, but with slightly less enthusiasm and slightly more sass
🎡 at Acadian Village (A couple of our multi-year favorites: Slouch beanie and Primary lightweight puffer)
Some spontaneous Christmas crafting
A yellow kitty cat hat as a gift made this a happy girlie.
Claiming her seat
Christmas Day excitement
😋
It’s the pen, for me. 😂💙
Burger date night with my bud