Caterpillar Update

We ended up having more caterpillars than we had hoped for this year!!! Originally, I thought we had around 8 caterpillars, but I kept finding more every time I tried to count them. Eventually, I stopped counting after 17!!! We had so many that I had to pull a small cabbage plant out of my garden almost every day for them to eat. They would eat the entire thing by the end of the day!! Whoa! I actually had Nathan put some of them outside because we had too many to feed!!! Anyway, all of the ones we kept formed a chrysalis. We waited about a week, and then we had our first butterfly appear the day before Easter.

Chrysalides

Our Cabbage White Butterflies!!!

drinking sugar water from a cotton ball

Weston didn't want to let them go, but I convinced him that it was best to set them free.

Goodbye, butterflies!

The butterflies quickly found my cabbage plants and started laying eggs. I'm sure they will destroy all of my cabbage plants!!that small dot is an egg!

A visit from Aunt Judy and Cousin April

Last week, my Aunt Judy and cousin April came to visit us. I haven't seen my cousin April in almost 7 years! It has been a long time, so we had a lot of catching up to do! I had never met her youngest daughter, Summer, and she had never met my boys. We had a great visit, but it went by too fast! Here are some photos of our week:

Summer, April, and Weston

Aunt Judy and Mom

Weston and Summer had the best time playing together! They spent a lot of time riding bikes and jumping on the trampoline. Weston and Summer also colored Easter eggs.

Wyatt just wanted to color.

April, my sister, and I celebrated April's 36th birthday by going out for Mexican food and margaritas one night!

April and Nolan share the same birthday. We ate birthday cake and had an Easter egg hunt at Nana and Papa's.

The kids hunting for eggs.

Later we found the kids in the living room with empty eggs. I think they ate all of the candy in 15 minutes!

The cousins playing ball together.

Update on the Chickens..

We LOVE our chickens!


Our chickens have added a lot of personality to our backyard! I never thought chickens would be so interesting, but they are so much fun to watch! They are always doing crazy things and they have funny personalities. One of the chickens laid in an egg in one of my flower pots the other day!




I thought the chickens were going to be a lot of trouble, but they turned out to be really easy. In the morning, Weston and Nathan feed the chickens and let them out of their coop. The rest of the day, they roam freely in our backyard. I couldn't be more pleased!! I told Nathan I didn't want to keep them if they had to be cooped up all day. I didn't feel good about keeping them confined to a small area for long periods of time. We were either going to get them a bigger coop, or let them run around the yard most of the time . We didn't know if we would be able to leave them unattended in our yard because they can fly to some extent. Their wings are clipped, but they can fly over our fence if they want to escape. So far, they seem very content staying in our yard. Even when we go somewhere, we leave them out. Luckily, they are always in the yard when we return home. So, I don't think we have to worry about them leaving anytime soon. As soon as the sun starts to set, they automatically go into their coop and go to sleep. How easy is that!!!? The only thing we have to do is make sure they have food and water. Not only are they easy pets to have, we now have fresh eggs every day! We collect at least 2 to 6 eggs every day. We have had to buy eggs since they came to our house. I think they might be the best pets we have ever had!!

Easter Party at School

Last week I helped with Weston's Easter party at school. I think I was more excited than Weston! I was mostly excited that I was able to spend quality time with Weston without Wyatt. This doesn't happen very often! My parents kept Wyatt that morning, so I didn't have to spend the entire time chasing Wyatt during Weston's party. The party was a lot of fun, and I think Weston was really happy to have me there. Good times!!!

I had to use my phone to take photos because I left my camera at home. The quality of the photos are not that great, but at least a have some snapshots of the party.

The party started with an egg hunt!

class photo

eating pizza and fruit

eating cupcakes (please notice the girls on the end...they were rubbing frosting all over their hands AND they smeared it all over the bathroom sink...yep, I was the lucky one who got to clean it up their mess :)

playing a bean bag toss game

decorating an egg

Egg Hunt!

On Saturday, we went to our annual Easter egg hunt at our church. We were really concerned that the rain was going to stop us from having the egg hunt outside, but the rain stopped as soon as the indoor activities ended. The rain turned out to be a blessing, because it wasn't as hot as it was last year!!

making crafts and coloring

Wyatt loves to color!
Candy Estimation Game

Bunny Ear Ring Toss

Weston was so embarrassed to put on these bunny ears. I told him that it was only fair that he wears them so Brandon could have a turn.

Wyatt tried too!
egg toss

hunting eggs