Photos from the Awarded Photographer

Our 6 year old awarded photographer took these photos around the garden. (I did not crop or otherwise alter these at all).
Rose, Salvia
Monarda, Petunia
Crown Vetch, Daisy (my favorite)
Acchillea, Cardinal Lobelia

Butterflies-The Cycle Starts Again

Got 3 more eggs over the weekend, and 2 of them hatched right away. Here is is with my trimmed piano-playing finger for reference.

Photos?

Mom-are these the photos that you wanted? The last 2, I am not sure. Take a look!
Click here to see the original list. If there are new ones, just hold your mouse over the photo that you want and let me know the last 4 #'s. So for the first photo in this list, the # = 5492.
I'll also send some butterfly photos (of course including the awarded one).

Sunflowers Getting Bigger

The "Kong Sunflowers" are progressing nicely. They are about as big as the little grower!!

Caterpillars in Chrysalis

Ah, these are a bit blurry, but here is one caterpillar in "J" and a chrysalis.



Now they are both in chrysalis...

Ladyhawk Soccer in Finals

Tonight there was an extremely competitive well-fought soccer game between the Ladyhawks and the navy blue team (don't know the name...).

The girls played their hearts out, and we ended up coming in 2nd. Cool trophies!!!

It has been so fun to watch the team come together and improve and most importantly have fun.

Thanks for a great season!


















The "awarded photographer" took this one of me...and A. and her friend M. made a cake for the team, which was a big hit!

Softball Fun-Tournament

This weekend was the annual softball tournament. The Cubs had some ups and downs, but overall did well. They went 1-3 for the tourney, and their win was against the eventual champion!!

S. did some pitching...she did beautifully!!

Caterpillars-More

Wow, these things grow fast! Last night the first one went into "J" mode, in the little bug house we bought, which isn't particularly suited for this. I ordered a nicer house on eBay, hope it comes soon!!

Last Tuesday...
Saturday...








Sunday...

The Shutterbug!

What a thrilling and proud feeling, when G. appeared before the local City Council to accept her award for the "images of our city" photo contest. They had a powerpoint showing the 5 winning photos, which were beautiful by the way. G. was the first announced, and (go figure!) the youngest submitter at 5 years old. You could hear a friendly little chuckle in the room as the communications manager announced her name and age, and heads bobbed up to see who was coming up for the photo with the mayor with the award plaque. The mayor smiled and tried to position himself standing tall, yet still allow for the tremendous difference in their heights. Unfortunately we had a camera mishap and didn't get that photo. :(

Before we left, she asked me if they would have our family come up for the photo. And I said, "No, this is your moment, just for you." She glowed...

Here we are just after. Auntie came with a card and flowers! Then we had a celebratory trip to the DQ!!

Sunflower Patch-Progress

Everything is growing nicely. These are "Kong" sunflowers, that are supposed to grow to heights up to 8' and higher...so we will see!!

G. planted these...Here they were in June...

Caterpillars-Progress

The caterpillars are getting bigger. We have 4 caterpillars, from Monarch eggs. My finger shown for reference...

Hornets Nests

For some crazy reason, we have two hornets nests, one on each roof/eve peak of our house. We purchased some serious big bad hornet spray today to tackle this problem...yet it rained, so we are waiting for more favorable weather for surer adherence and poison-ability (apologies to any hornet-lovers out there).

The nests are oh about the size of a volleyball/smaller basketball. I may "cover" my husband with a hose as he sprays with poison, which we will do at dusk (when they are least active).

Can you see those mean buggers in the close-up photo?

Like Cousins

A couple weeks ago we visited with Kate - who firstly I work with. And then she started a blog, and I thought it was so interesting. First we submitted some content to her blog, but now as it works out we are fellow bloggers together. She lives pretty far away (Park City, UT), and we don't see each other very often, despite invitations to visit etc. But we collaborate on a few work projects, and periodically communicate through our blogs, such as these...
Butterfly photo
Sunflowers
Zinnias
Gardening

So spending a little time was so nice...just whiling away part of an afternoon (OK, I should have been working, but so what?), chatting about the garden, hearing about her garden (the BIG ROCK among other things). I don't know, but to me it kind of felt like when you get together with your favorite cousin. You may not see each other very often, and maybe they live far away, but you easily catch up once you can get together, and it is something that you look forward to.

I had a smile on my face (and a nice little warm feeling in my heart) for that whole day.

Here we are by the clematis...

Butterfly Farm!

Our neighbor from down the street, a very nice boy we know mainly from the bus stop, showed us through example how to raise butterflies.

-- Find Monarch eggs on milkweed leaves (usually the underside). They are quite small, a little bit smaller than a pinhead.
-- In anywhere from 1-5 days, a caterpillar will hatch. So far ours are little, maybe 1/4", and gray with black heads.
-- Give them fresh milkweed leaves every day to eat.
-- After a while they will find a nice spot to hang and make a "J", then a chrysalis.
-- Then the butterfly hatches. Feed it fresh fruit (like oranges, even watermelon).
-- Once the wings are formed, set it free!

Repeat...

We have currently I think 2 caterpillars and 1-2 eggs in one container, and 2 caterpillars and 1 egg in another container.

I don't know who is having more fun so far with this process, me or the girls (mostly G-6 years old)!!!

Here's a teeny baby caterpillar (about 1 day old) and an egg in the same shot, and then another caterpillar. Just click on the photos to see a closer view.

Baby Birds-again!

Another neighbor has a little nest in their hanging basket of purple petunias on their front porch! (we observed some little birdies earlier in the summer). Again, they are little gray sparrows. You can see one egg and a little little just-born birdie, here. I tried to get a shot of the mother bird, but she was so skittish she flew away whenever I raised my camera!