Growing Everyday

Beka’s teacher sent home a printout on Friday describing an activity called Bugfest that was happening at one of the Indy parks over the weekend. Of course, my children were eager to be a part of anything having to do with bugs. Now, Andrew and I thought this would be a smallish event. We were completely and utterly wrong. There were parents and kids everywhere. First, we went to the check-in where both kids were handed a card to keep track of the stations they visited. There were probably 15-20 stations to visit all dealing in some way with bugs. We were able to see monarch caterpillars and monarch butterflies, bees and beekeepers, an entomologist, and worms. The kids really enjoyed watch the fly fisherman make their own flies. Then we come to the "grossome" part of the day. The Bugfest included a bug cafe where the children and Andrew tried bacon/cheddar crickets, salt/vinegar crickets, sour cream crickets, and chocolate covered crickets. They also had these silkworm things that you could eat. Apparently, those tasted the worst.

We spent alot of time doing nothing in August partly because mom is lazy and partly because school started and that cut into fun time a bit. So I decided to end the month with picture spam. We took Jared to a skatepark for the first time to play on his skateboard. He was intimidated by all the big kids but he did okay. That same day Beka brought her bike to the park and rode all over. Then both kids decided to climb and tree.

I tried one afternoon to get some posed brother/sister pictures. That didn’t work out so well. Jared hates to smile for pictures and if I have Beka pose, her smile looks so fake. Anyway, it was fun for me to play photographer for awhile.

I took pictures the last time we went swimming. We only made it about 30 minutes because it was cold. Beka and Jared really do love to swim though. It is even better when Daddy is there to play with them.

We planted a box of seeds this year that were supposed to attract butterflies. As I have mentioned before Beka loves butterflies so this was her little project. We have zinnias, purple coneflowers, sunflowers, and a bunch of other flowers that I can’t even begin to tell you the names of. But, apparently, they are working because Andrew found a chrysalis on the side of the house. We have now brought it inside and I am hoping that a butterfly hatches. I just think that would be amazing to watch.

Jared lost his first tooth. He is so excited. It was really loose, just barely hanging on. It was actually causing him more pain because it was twisting around so I just plucked it out. Jared couldn’t believe it was just that easy.

It seems like every boy in the neighborhood has a skateboard. Jared was mystified by them and really really wanted to try it. So as a reward for reading 20 books this summer, he received a skateboard. The first few times he rode it, I had to look away and make Andrew supervise. They just don’t look safe. Jared has done really well on it though. And the teenagers in the neighborhood are taking the time to give him advice on moves to do. He has a blast out there.

My house is very quiet today. The first day of school is today and both kids are there all day. I am a little excited to have so much time to myself and a little anxious about my kids. I am just praying that today turns out to be a great day for both of them. If their smiles before they left are any indication, then it should be a wonderful day.