Our Little Butterfly Garden

Our little butterfly garden has had lots

of visitors. These painted ladies probably

frequent it the most!

 We get an occasional Giant Swallowtail!

 And an occasional Zebra Swallowtail!

 The Giant Swallowtail

seems to like posing for pictures!

Where you find butterflies, you

often find little moths.

See him sucking the nector out

of our butterfly bush bloom?

 And this year, we have gotten a few

Monarchs! They are one of my

favorites, but since their caterpillers feed

on milweed, and I normally weed my

blower beds, we didn't get an

abundant supply.

This year, however - I left any milkweed growing

in and under my butterfly bush.The bush keeps

them sort of camoflaged, so I don't

have to look at them and

feel like my garden needs weeding.

And the catipillars have them

to feed upon. Hopefully, this plan

will make Monarch visits

more frequent!





They are so pretty and they flutter

so gracefully through the yard.

I'd love to have a few more!

Leopard's Party

Grace loves story time and story activities, so when

we read about Leopard's surprise birthday party

we had to have a little surprise of our own.

 We made a birthday pinata!

 I simply took a package of tissue paper and cut it

up into little squares and let the girls glue them onto

a plain paper grocery sack!

 Olivia liked playing with the colored

tissue paper!

 Grace liked the glueing! This girl loves

making a good mess!

 Some of the paper she glued on in wads

and some of it she laid out flat.

But - either way was fine with me!

I didn't really expect this project

to be beautiful!

It's entire purpose was to entertain!

 However, it did turn out pretty cute!

 After the sack was fairly well covered

with tissue paper - we read another

story or two while it dried.

Then - we filled it with candy and

hung it from a piece of heavy twine

and Grace beat the stuffing out of it!

 And I somehow managed to keep

Olivia safely out of the way!

 Wham!

 What a party!

 

After busting open the pinata, we even

had a cake!

 Gracie blew out the candles for

Leopard and we sang him the

birthday song!

 And then she poured each of us

a nice cup of tea!

 Yummy!

And after eating the frosting off of

her own piece of cake, Gracie continued

to pick the frosting off of the

rest of the cake as well.

I guess she figured she needed to

enjoy enough cake for

Leopard, too!

Odds are he likes the frosting

the best!



Shaving Cream, Shaving Cream....

 Shaving Cream... Shaving Cream....

 Shave every day and your

face will be clean!

 Shaving Cream.... Shaving Cream.....

 LOOK OUT!

Someone's about to get creamed!

 Actually.... everyone got creamed!

Olivia creamed Grandpa!

And Grace creamed me!

And both girls had a blast

playing in the shaving cream!

Making Laundry Soap!

I've been following Nana Diana over

at Nana Diana Takes a Break

for quite awhile, now.

So long in fact, that I've seen her post

this recipe for laundy soap TWICE!

The second time, I decided to

try it. So, I got out a big

mixing bowl/baby bathtub

(she uses a clean dry sink)

and gathered all the ingredients

and invited Brandy over to help!

(Brandy is my daughter in law - Brilyn's Mommy)

 We mixed all the ingredients according to

the recipe on Nana Diana's blog.

However, we were unable to find Zote Soap,

so we used the Fels Naptha version

instead! Anyway, our laundry soap

turned out great!

Our clothes smell clean and fresh

and we are saving money!

Plus.... it was fun!

I always enjoy spending time

with Brandy and Brilyn!

And - Look!

These cute little containers look

so much better on our laundry room

counter than the old bottle of Tide!

I found them at Walmart.

I think it's a coffee keeper or something,

but I loved the little spoon that

came attached - and it's perfect for

measuring the laundry soap.

To get the recipe

see Nana Diana's Post Here!

Cupcakes, Cupcakes, Who Wants To Make Cupcakes

 Grace loves storytime!

And storytime is always better if it

includes a craft or an activity!

So - when I read the book,

Let's Make Cupcakes!

on my new Kindle,

Grace had an idea!

 "Hey! We can make cupcakes!"

She said.

And so we did!

 Olivia even helped!

She licked the beaters, she licked the spoon and

she put sprinkles on a cupcake!

 And as soon as she was finished she picked it up

and took a big bite!

 And - she continues eating HER cupcake....

 While Gracie frosted and decorated

the rest of the batch!

Yum!

Look Who Loves Candy!

 Grace was in the mood for some

cotton candy!

 So - we got out the machine and

made some!

 I'm not sure if she likes making it or eating

it the most!

But - cotton candy makes her happy!

And it smells soooooo good!

And we recently discovered that special cotton

candy sugar is not really needed.

The colored sugar that you uses to put on top

of cookies and cupcakes works just fine!

Plain sugar works, too... but who wants

white cotton candy?



Science

 Grace got a little Smithsonian

Science Kit and had to

test it out!

 It came with this little block,

and you had to use the wooden

pick and hammer to excavate little

gems and stones!

 It also came with safety goggles

to prevent little specks of stuff

from getting into your eyes.

I think she liked it.

And just look at all the cool

little stones she found!