Hard Hat Area

Happy Birthday to my friend Collin. He is the funniest boy I know and I can't believe he is 4. He is pretty excited too. We went to McDonald's (where he usually gets stuck at the top of the slide and we have to go in after him) and he sighed and said "I'm big now, I guess I can do it." And he did. And you know what buddy? You are right, your jokes are funnier than daddy's. I hope you had a great day. Life is never boring with you around. I love you more than cheese.

He kept telling us "Grandma is getting me suspenders to hold up my pants!" The only problem was that Grandma didn't really know this, so she went on a hunt for kid's suspenders. He is really excited about the prospect of his pants not falling of his bum, or his lack of bum.

Butterfly In The Sky....

...Actually they are in a net on my kitchen counter and will probably never see the sky, but nonetheless...

We grew butterflies! For Christmas, Maura got one of those kits to grow butterflies. I thought for sure I would kill all of them...we tried this once before and our caterpillar, Marvin (RIP) died before ever making his chrysalis. I hope you turned into a beautiful butterfly in heaven, Marvin (though I am 99% sure he was a moth). Anyway...All of our larvae turned into healthy caterpillars, who turned into creepy chrysalides (plural for chrysalis, betcha didn't know) and all 10 of of them hatched into butterflies. That's right, I didn't kill a one of them! Maura (but mostly me) had a blast watching them transform. That's right, I helped facilitate an amazing transformation here folks. Just sayin'..

This was our first butterfly to hatch.

Apparently they ooze this red junk as part of the process of getting pigment to their wings. I thought it was bleeding to death. It is still pretty gross.

This is Maura holding her beloved butterfly. See that black thing touching her finger? That is the tongue. These things get creepier as we go along.

Collin was initially terrified of these little guys. But he came around and eventually held one. I, on the other hand, still have not.

Ya...It's Like That

My sister-in-law, Heidi, recently wrote a post about lowering your expectations in order to find happiness and peace amidst the chaos of motherhood. She didn't have this realization until she had 5 kids, and I only have 3, but I'm there. With working a full-time job (and then some on certain days) and having three kids, a house and a husband...it is a juggling act that I am not very good at sometimes. Sometimes work suffers and I forget about a project and sometimes the kids suffer and I forget to feed them. And on really special days, like today, you realize you are in a sad state of affairs when it is 11:00 AM and everyone is still in their pajamas, you have to kick things out of your way to make a trail from the living room to the kitchen, your baby eats a pea that has been on the floor anywhere from one day to months, and you feel something on your leg and realize you have had a diaper attached to it. And said diaper has probably been there longer than a few minutes. Tomorrow will be better, right? RIGHT!?