butterfly, go ahead fly

"You are like a butterfly. 

A catapillar's dream to fly. 

So,bust out of this old own cocoon. 

 And dry your wings off. 

Butterfly. 

Go ahead, and fly"   

-Dave Matthews

Lauren is a butterfly mama!  She saw this commercial for a Butterfly Garden while watching cartoons and decided she wanted it.  She marched up to her room, took $19.99 out of her piggy bank and gave it to me and asked me to get the Butterfly Garden for her.  I did and in a few days, a package arrived that contained live catapillars!  We read the instructions and within a few days of watching the catapillars, they had made their way up to the top of the jar and formed a "J".  There was one that fell onto the bottom of the jar and we thought that one might not make it.  After all the catapillars made their chrysallis', we transferred them over to the butterfly garden net.  We watched them as one by one, they turned into butterflies - even the one that fell turned into a butterfly!  There was one that did not hatch.  It had a hole in its chrysallis.  It was a ton of fun!  Lauren fed them sugar water and picked flower petals for them.  We kept the butterflies for about a week before releasing them.  As Lauren said, "You watch them grow, then let them go."  Gotta love catchy advertising!!   

Josh's Preschool Graduation

I'm definately playing catch-up here on posts!  Josh graduated from preschool from Northfield Montessori in May!!  I can't believe he is starting kindergarten in the fall!!  Lauren is so excited that he will be going to school with her and he's so very ready for kindergarten : ) 

So proud!!

Josh's teachers Ms. Jill and Ms. Nikki

Logan clearly having a "moment"

He'll always be my baby boy : )

Josh and his buddy Hayden

Looks like triple trouble!!  - Josh, Carter and Garrett

Preston Trout Days

Back in May we travelled down to Preston, Minnesota to visit my grandma, aunt, uncle, and cousins to enjoy Trout Days.  For those of you unfamiliar with the Preston area it is a beautiful place filled with tons of fun family activities like bike trails, parks, swimming, and you guessed it - trout fishing!! 

We didn't make it down in time for the kids trout fishing event, but we did make it to the kiddie carnival with a LOT of bouncy castles, games and kiddie tractor pull.  Then we watched the parade which sent us along with a ton of candy!  We stayed for dinner with my grandma and my kids had fun at her house exploring all the nooks and crannys and making my grandma smile : ) 

Aunt Sandy and Emma

Logan supervised the candy collection efforts

He had his ears covered pretty much the whole time!

Candy buddies!

The Kraby 6

Grandma Greggie and her great-grandchildren : )

Book Club!

A few months ago I picked up an Easy Bake kit from a garage sale.  This prompted the beginning of "Baking Club" with Lauren and her friend Izzy.  From there, ideas for gardening club, running club, art club, swimming club, movie club and book club came about.  The ideas for laundry club, cleaning club, and dishes club were, of course, met with eye rolls!  Book club sounded like a good way to keep the girls interested in reading in a social way to make reading fun since sometimes it can feel like work (especially during the school year).  Then the busyness of life kept getting in the way, so the idea was put on the back-burner.  The girls, however, refused to let it go.  They kept reminding me, "What about book club?" and "When are we starting book club?" 

I decided that I was going to host book club for them.  I did some Google research on good books for second grade girls and decided on three of them:  Three Stories You Can Read To Your Dog, The Hundred Dresses, and The Seven Treasure Hunts. 

We had the first book club last week and it was so much fun!!  The book Three Stories You Can Read To Your Dog was really below their level of reading, but the girls only had a short amount of time to read it in.  Plus, it was a cute book!  The girls arrived in their pajamas with their favorite stuffed dogs and started playing Scooby Doo Bingo (their idea!).  My wonderful neighbor, Stephanie, did an art project with the girls, which was a self-portrait of them with their dogs glued on cardboard surrounded by a Milk-Bone frame.  It was so adorable and super fun for the girls!  Then we ate lunch:  hot dogs, kibbles and bits (macaroni & cheese), dog bone shaped watermelon and puppy chow.  After lunch we gathered to talk about the book - our favorite story out of the book, the silly things our dogs do, whose voice the book was from, and if we actually read it to our dogs.  The girls were very talkative and responsive and it was clear all of them read the book, which was a relief!  After the book talk, the make-up came out and the girls spent the rest of the time painting nails and so on.

I'd say it was a success! 

I'm excited for the next book club for The Hundred Dresses. : )