Luna Eclipse

No, I didn't spell my title wrong.  Over Memorial Day weekend we picked up a particularly large, fat caterpillar and decided to bring it home with us from East Texas.  We put it in a small container and Braden added some extra leaves for it to munch on.  Only, it didn't munch on them.  It started folding itself up in the leaves.  I didn't really know what to make of it.  I thought we were going to have a HUGE butterfly on our hands from the size of the caterpillar, but I'd never heard of one folding itself into a cocoon of leaves.  When I showed Sam, he said he thought it was going to be a moth and not a butterfly.  Well, we went ahead and brought it home and put it into the hanging butterfly garden that I bought more than a year ago.  I had bought the caterpillars online to go with it, but they didn't survive, so this was our first go with the "garden" a.k.a. cage. (Don't you love how companies try and make something sound way better than it actually is?)  While trying to put it into the cage, I accidentally dropped it and it started shaking like a maraca.  Well, that creeped me out a wee bit....

Well, it hung for weeks with no sign of life.  I finally heard a scratching sound late one night and thought it was another kind of bug that had a death wishmik, and went searching for it for a bit until I figured out that it was the cocoon.  Then, my friend Ali came over and she inspected it thinking it might be dead, but decided not so much when it started shaking and scratching yet again.  A couple of days later, I just happened to look up and noticed something hanging on the side of the cage and got it down and this is what we saw:

Isn't it pretty?  Its called a Luna Moth.  I texted Sam about it and said I would prefer that he release it with the kiddos.  I'm not so much into large flappy things around my head. :)  I had told the kids that once it hatched, we would not be keeping it as I didn't want to mess with feeding it.  AND, because I didn't know when this not-so-little-guy had come out, I didn't know if he was starving or not.

So, Sam got home and we waited a little longer til the evening to release it because we were hoping the birds wouldn't get him.

Sam is amazing.  He just reached in there and scooched it on out.

It took a while for it to decide it wanted to leave the table.  It flapped around a bit before it got its air legs and got itself going.  Sam did say that a bird narrowly missed getting it.  After all that was said and done, I wanted to know more about it because I'd never seen a moth like that.  I didn't get a pic of its body, but it was beautiful.  It was fuzzy and white and the texture reminded me of a pipe cleaner.  I found these pics online:

Anyway, after reading more about it, I found out that it doesn't have a mouth at all!  It lives for 3 days and its sole purpose it to find a mate and reproduce.  Craziness!  The no mouth thing really got me.  I also felt really bad after reading that because I don't know exactly how long it had been hanging out in the cage ready to fly before I glance up there and also because apparently they are rather rare and even endangered in some areas.  That got me to thinking that it probably wasn't gonna find a mate around here since we are some 6 hours away from where it was supposed to be.  Oops.

Yer Crackin' Me Up!

Rolling over

Brea rolled all the way over onto her belly this evening.  She's been rolling from side to side for a while now, but today she made the flip.  Then, she got upset because she was face down and her arm was stuck under her. :)

Rolled Flower Giveaway Take Two Winner!

After a grueling process of writing each of the numbers down on a sheet of paper, then cutting them up, then folding them into fourths and then putting them into an empty wipes box (hey, I use what I have available!), I had Braden pull a number out.  After telling Zekey that I did not need another number taken out and hearing his audible disappointment, I unfolded it to find the #5!

Congratulations to Kady!!!

I've sent an email to you.  Please contact me within the next 24 hours.  If I haven't heard from you by then, I'll draw from the box again.

Thank you, everyone, for entering the giveaway.  I'm glad to find some newcomers in the comments!  Welcome!  Of course, I'm always glad to see my girls who support my frequent whims on here!  Reina, those shoes are super cute!  You should take a pic and post them.  I think you would love them, too, Nessa, knowing your love of interesting shoes and all.  Yes, Nersa, I think you should do a giveaway!  I'll enter. :)  I need to check to make sure I'm a follower.  Don't know if I ever did that or not.  Kristina, I would send you one just for examination purposes, but you might find youtube just as helpful... ;)

I don't know if I'm going to do another giveaway next week yet or not....we'll see.  I may need to come up with something else to giveaway....you know, switch it up a bit.  I'll ponder on it over the weekend. :)

Rolled Flower Giveaway take two!

I'm woefully late on this post, since I was supposed to have it up yesterday!  Sorry about that!  Here it is.

If you tilt your head to the right, you'll have the right view of it. :)

Again, there is an alligator clip and a pin, so you can wear it in your hair or on your clothes.

I've christened this one Ragtime Doll.  Its probably not era appropriate per say, but its a nod that way and that's what it makes me think of (or for those of you who prefer correct grammar usage - of what it makes me think. ;)

Rules of entry:

Tell me why you want to be the receiver of this bow-pin and who you are giving it to.

That's it.  Pretty simple!

Today is the start date and I will choose a winner on Friday via a random choosing process. (i.e. random.com or one of my kids pulling a name out of a bucket :)

And the Winner is.... and a sneak preview

Well, here we are at the end of the week and its time to name the winner from My First Giveaway! I'm cutting it off a little early cuz my mailman will be here any moment. With such an overwhelming response to my giveaway, I really thought I was going to have trouble picking a winner. ;)  Anyway, it wasn't as difficult as I first thought.  I didn't even have to use a website or even the kids pulling a number out of a bucket or anything!  So, without further ado and even less sarcasm....

MzTerry, CONGRATULATIONS!!!  

See, the first entry does win sometimes! :D  I hope you enjoy it!  I'll get it in the mail to you asap.

So, now that I've accomplished one giveaway, I think I'll go for round two.  Anyone interested?  (BTW, MzTerry, if this one strikes your fancy, by all means enter again!)  Here's another rolled flower concoction:

If you tilt your head to the right, you'll have the right view of it. :)

Again, there is an alligator clip and a pin, so you can wear it in your hair or on your clothes.

I've christened this one Ragtime Doll.  Its probably not era appropriate per say, but its a nod that way and that's what it makes me think of (or for those of you who prefer correct grammar usage - of what it makes me think. ;)

We'll start this giveaway on Monday, so keep your peepers on the lookout!

Closet Dividers

I finally decided that I needed to organize the kids' clothes, starting with the girls' stuff.  Well, that presented a problem because there are so many sizes in the closet between the two.  So, I decided I needed closet dividers.  After googling it, I found several different DIY versions like this, this, this and this.  It was really funny to me that many of the blogs I looked at made a comment about the dividers not really being necessary, but they wanted to make them anyway.  I have to beg to differ.  They are NECESSARY in this house fo' sho'!  I have been blessed with a TON of clothes recently for the girls and with only one closet for both...yeah.  The situation is the same for the boys, too!  So,  I could have bought the plastic rings and purdied them all up, but my cheap-self decided to go recycle bin diving instead.  I got some cardboard boxes and found a container lid that was exactly the size I needed and went to town drawing circles on the cardboard and then cutting them out.

After that, I cut out circles of scrapbook paper in complementary colors and modpodged them onto the cardboard cutouts.

 After they dried, I got my handy-dandy hole punch and put two holes in the top.

  I got ribbon scraps and made loops through the holes. 

  I then rummaged through my paper craft paraphernalia and found blank labels and slapped those bad boys on the front of the cutouts.  Oh, and I had to add some sparkly flower stickers I found in my stash.  Then, I wrote the sizes I needed on said labels and hung 'em up in the girls' closet.



Ta-da!

The sad thing is that I still have two more bags to go through and hang up/find a place for MORE clothes!!  AAAAaaaaahhhh!!!!!

Happy 4th Birthday, Zekers!

I can't believe Zekey is 4 already!  He's such a big boy.  He's also a very good big brother.  Zekey has such a tender heart and such sweetness in him.  God has something very special in mind for him every step of the way.  I love to see him grow and I love that he wants to just be around us.  He doesn't always want our undivided attention, but wants to be in our presence.  I just love that!  I am so excited to see where God take him.

Zekey, we all love you so, so much and love who you are and who God is growing you to be.  We are so excited to be a part of your journey and love that God chose us to be your family!  Happy birthday, sweet boy!