Babies on Potties!

Charlie has been randomly using the potty. 

He LOVES to sign potty and sit on it and act like he's going. 

and occasionally, he does...

Tripp using the potty at 8 months old.

What? 

Of course, babies can use the potty!

Tripp used the potty from just a few weeks after birth and I can count on 1 hand how many poop diapers of his I ever changed in his first 2 years of life.

With Charlie, we didn't really use ec. It just wasn't his style, but all of the sudden he loves the potty.

And I love that he loves to use the potty...because babies on potties are SO cute :)

Without Further Ado....FOUR!

I know, I know. 

I'm still slacking on the blog this summer.

But, once again, everyone can thank my Oma for giving me a little nudge to post Tripp's 4th birthday pics.

What?! 

My *baby* is already 4?!

Wasn't he just born?

And how did 4 years just fly by before I can even catch my breath?!

Well, it did and this 4 year old wanted to celebrate his birthday with a camping and fishing party! 

It was so much fun!

 Tent Pinata Prep Work

 MeMe gave him his 4 wheeler on the morning of his actual birthday.

 Birthday cupcake

Ready for his party!

 The spread...camping fare. Hot dogs, trail mix, "roasted" marshmallows w/ pretzel sticks, mixed goldfish crackers, chips and dip, fruit and veggie trays and the watermelon that MeMe carved with little fishes that sat in the fridge until the next day :/

 Not only did he need this cake (my most detailed to date), but also he informed us he wanted "dirt and worms" cupcakes. 

My go-to for natural food coloring

 The pinata was a hit! 

A tent filled with granola bars, boxes of raisins, packs of peanut butter crackers and more camping themed goodies! They didn't miss the candy at all.

Henry really racked up!

 Where's Tripp?

 His balance bike from Nana and Poppie...which he LOVES by the way!!!

And really, who needs all those birthday presents when, really the box is the most fun.

Seriously. We've yet to be able to recycle the darn thing!

Happy Birthday Tripp! I can't wait to see what year 4 has in store!!

Raising Butterflies!

Black Swallowtails to be exact!

We found some caterpillars munching down on my parsley, so we looked them up to see what butterfly they changed into before feeding them to the birds :)

When I realized they were black swallowtails (duh! how was this tidbit unbeknownst to me this long?), I suggested we raise them.
Cool educational opportunity for all, right?

 I'm really sad that my laptop crashed and I lost all our pictures from day 1 until now.

But these are our first butterflies to emerge from their cocoons!

The setup: an old fish bowl w/ a piece of mesh tied over the top with sticks and their daily ration of parsley

 Getting ready to release our first swallowtails

 These had been pumping their wings for a few hours and were ready to go! I hope to see them around the yard again.

 2 cocoons from the first butterflies...

I was quite interested by these particular 2.

They attached themselves to the glass instead of the sticks like the rest.
I was really wondering what color they'd choose for their cocoons because generally they are the color of whatever they attach to which is normally green or brown.

Considering the glass bowl was facing out to a white-ish wall, my interest was justified.

One chose green and the other chose brown...cool huh?

Another caterpillar getting ready to shed his skin and form his cocoon with another readying himself to become a butterfly inside his cocoon already. 

So far, we've had 4 hatch and have 4 more incubating.

Good Thing We Like Each Other!

This weekend was particularly fun and funny.

My sis, her husband and niece all came up for the weekend and stayed at my parents.

My grandparents and cousin also decided to come and visit since they were in town.

Again, staying at my parents.

Then, at the end of the day Friday, we returned home from an overnight trip to the water park to find our air conditioner dead, so guess what?!

We headed to my parents for the weekend.

Have I mentioned that my parents house is a construction zone?

They had to redo their foundation AND replace the main water line into the house.

This resulted in ripped up floors, destroyed walls and basically utter upheaval.

So, in all this fun state, we all camped out at my parents  for the weekend and had a blast!

The most fun was watching these 3 cousins playing and squealing with laughter!

We celebrated Tripp's birthday while Cadence was in town so she wouldn't miss any fun!

Tripp requested a peanut butter and jelly house sandwich, mac n cheese, cheese dip and chips and spanish rice. We had quite the interesting dinner (actually, all the fill-ins from the grill were delish!)

We finished up with cupcakes and these sillies all crashed for the night! 

We had fun, Griswolds!!

Slacking

I know, I know. 

My blog is being greatly neglected this summer.

But that's just what happens when you make up for not getting to hang out with your hubby during the school year.

We've been busy and enjoying the time together as a family and as a couple.

My grandmother will keep my on my toes, though.

So, I promise I will try to do better.

I do have a million and a half composed blog posts saved and tons of cute pictures, recipes and ramblings to share.
I just need an extra 30 minutes in the day to get them up!