Present for teacher

My BFF's sister was B's teacher this year.  She deserved a great end of year-thanks for putting up with my kid present.

A couple of weeks ago, I ran into her at A's ballet recital rehearsal.  She saw me knitting and oohed and aahed over the scarf I was knitting.  I knew immediately what I had to give it to her.






I think it will be lovely with her red hair and hope she can put it too good use next year in carpool line.

Details on ravelry

Almost grown monarch

I think it is up to the 5th instar now.  It is eating a ton.  It used to eat a bit of a leaf during the day.  It ate 5-6 leaves last night and is munching away on more right now.

Garden update

I finally have a tomato turning another color. I was so excited to see that yellow with sort of pinkish reddish undertone. I've been worrying about the high daytime temperatures for the past week. I was afraid that I had finally grown tons of tomatoes and they were going to hang on there green all summer long.




We also have baby watermelons




And cucumbers




That picture looks like I took it at night, but there is a storm rolling through and all of the sudden it got dark, plus the flash went off.

Last Day of School

Today was it, the last day of school.

The kids weren't nearly as excited as I thought they would be. I think it was the long weekend with lots of playing with the cousins, swimming in the pool, celebrating the graduation and staying up too late.  Of course, now it is summer and I'm going to have a hard time getting them to go to bed at a decent hour.

The upper grades had an awards ceremony. I knew that A was getting an award, a scholarship from the church women's group, so DH & I attended.




Little did I know she was going to sweep the awards (or close to it.)

Literature




Citizen




Art




She's looking done with awards in that last picture. The boys also did quite well in school.  B got all M (mastered the information) in kindergarten and is ready to move onto first grade.  J got all A's and the technology award for his class.

I can't believe that another year of school is gone.

Here's my first grader (not wanting his picture taken.)




fourth grader



and seventh grader




We have 11 or so weeks until it starts all over again.

Graduation

This weekend the oldest niece graduated from high school. S#1 & S#4 came into town to help celebrate.




Doesn't she look pretty?




Her school is fancy. They had a live streaming broadcast of the graduation, so we got to sit at home and watch it on the internet instead of standing in the heat.

There were a few issues with the feed. The volume was off so it was very hard to hear. I remembered a pin I saw on pinterest using a cup as a speaker. I pulled a bowl out of the kitchen cabinet and tried it. It worked surprisingly well.




We all cheered when she got her diploma.




It was a lovely graduation.

Monarch 3rd Instar

The caterpillar keeps eating and growing. This morning it was bigger and sporting longer antennae.

More monarch

The monarch caterpillar is growing nicely.  It is sporting cute black antennae now.







This morning it was on the lid of the glad container.  I got it to move onto fresh leaves and cleaned out the container again.  It seems happy again, eating big holes in the new leaf.

Monarch Update

Some time this morning, the monarch went from the first instar to the second instar.  The pictures a little blurry but you can see the changes.  It was about 2-3mm yesterday and it's about 5-6 mm today, plus it has stripes.

Happy Mother's Day to Me!

For Mother's Day this year, I requested a new toilet.  I had great dislike for the toilet in the boys' bathroom.  I replaced the toilet seat for Father's Day last year (since I wanted a new seat for Mother's Day and didn't get one), but it didn't do much for my feelings for the toilet. Although the seat was much easier to clean, the toilet still had it issues.  Due to its lack of power, it never completely flushed which led to a nasty-looking, uncleanable toilet.

Even though I got my lovely new bag for Mother's Day, it was understood that I would still be getting a toilet. I found a place to buy the toilet I wanted in Dallas, but I had to wait a few days to get it and it was expensive. I did some searching and found a better deal. I ordered a toilet online and it arrived on Monday. Yeah! Yesterday DH installed it for me. The days of the disgusting toilet are finally over!


It arrived


Not as disgusting as I imagined


The floor and walls scrubbed clean (these are boys using this bathroom)


Anti-slip plastic things on the lid


Setting it in


And I have a new toilet


Now I want to replace the rest of the toilets in the house. My birthday is in August and our anniversary is in September. I wonder?

Baby Monarch!

I love watching caterpillars turn into moths & butterflies.  We've been lucky to have a black swallowtail and polyphemus moth transform for us.

After watching the monarch on the milkweed last week, I decided to check the plants for eggs. Yesterday I found one. I did some quick google research on raising monarchs and decided to try.

I plucked the leaf with the egg on it yesterday. It was completely white. This morning it had a black spot, so I knew it was close to hatching.











I was sitting at my computer contemplating working when I looked down to see the caterpillar coming out of the egg.  Oh, so exciting!!!!







It is happily eating away at the egg sac now. I don't know if I'm going to be able to work today. I may be caterpillar watching instead.

Super Bowl Victory

Today was Kindergarten Flag Football Playoffs. We had a busy schedule today. A & I had the 6th grade Mother/Daughter mass & tea. I had a girl scout leader meeting that I wanted to attend. S#2 was flying in from Kazakhstan and needed a ride home for her, the 3 girls, two dogs, two large dog crates and all of the luggage. Throw in flag football games at 1, 3, & 5pm and it makes for an extremely busy Sunday.

They had to win the first game on Thursday to get to Sunday playoffs. B was sick with strep and couldn't play. I was keeping my fingers crossed that they would lose and make my life easier. Lucky for the boys they won.

In the end it all worked out.  A & I enjoyed the tea. DH & I watched them win the first game. I headed out to the meeting & airport while DH stayed for the 2nd game. I would have pulled it all off without a hitch except that S#2's plane came in early. I got a call as I was leaving the school that they were at Terminal D and were waiting. I raced home, grabbed A & J and drove DH's truck like a speed demon all the way to the airport. I even caught up with my mother & niece who left ahead of me. Good thing it was Sunday afternoon and there was no traffic.  23 minutes from phone call to airport. The kids knew not to look at the speedometer. Or if they did look, they knew not to say anything.

After dropping the family off and visiting for awhile, I went back to the Y just in time for the start of the 3rd game, or "THE SUPER BOWL" as some of the boys were calling it. As I walked up to the field I saw B zig-zig his way down the field for a touchdown. Despite all of my wishing that they would lose for my own sake, it was exciting to watch them win. They were so excited!


the last play of the game


icing the coach


his medal


the winning team


Number One!


Let's hope this isn't the pinnacle of their athletic careers.

Catching up

We've been busy lately. A is slogging through her first finals ever. School is finishing up. I'm working on a new project. I'm struggling with the ramp up and focusing on brain draining stuff again. That three month break was nice but DH likes in the income.

I had a nice Mother's Day on Sunday.  DH surprised me with a new bag.  It is one I looked at back at Christmas time but couldn't bring myself to spend the money.  It was a very nice surprise. I got breakfast in bed and spent the afternoon working in the yard. The grandmothers, niece and S#5 came over for dinner.  I requested takeout from Fish City Grill.  It was yummy and we did not have to wait for a table nor clean the kitchen when we were done.  Perfect!

I spent some time this afternoon pulling weeks and checking the garden.

The tomatoes are growing.




This is the same tomato back on May 1st.




I've been watching my other tomato plant closely waiting for the teeny tomatoes to grow.  I should have looked from the other side because today I found two nicely growing Brandywine.




I spied some baby jalapenos




On Mother's Day we dug up the onions so J could plant some corn.  They didn't get very big.  I'll have to figure out what I did wrong and try again next year.




In the mean time I need a recipe that uses pearl onion.  These would be perfect.

Mom gave me a mandevilla for Mother's Day.  I planted it out by my gas meter. Hopefully the pretty plant will distract from the ugly meter.




I spotted a monarch butterfly on the butterfly weed.




I also found another lint bug, aka wooly aphid.




We have a busy weekend ahead. DH is at the Byron Nelson and I have book club tonight. Tomorrow we have B's baseball game and A's ballet recital. Sunday is the 6th grade Mother/Daughter Tea, B's flag football playoff (games 1:00, 3:00, & 5:00), a end of the year Girl Scout Leader meeting and the cousins arrive home. Add into that A's obsessive studying for her finals. It is going to be a crazy weekend.

Banquet

A couple of weeks ago, I got an email from the school announcing the sports banquet.  I promptly deleted it.  No need for that.  Last Saturday another mom asked if A was going to the banquet.  All of the sudden it hit me, she was an athlete this year.  She played volleyball and she could go to the banquet.

I came home and asked A about it.  She was iffy about going.  I told her to talk to her friends at school and see if they were going to.  Monday afternoon, she was still unsure, but I decided that she would go and I would send DH with her.




Well, look at that.  A got the Heart Award for her volleyball team.  It's the award that is given to the player who may not be the best on the team but the one who gives it her all, is a good team player and has enthusiasm.  I'm so glad that she didn't skip out on the banquet! I'm so proud of her.