Bee-isms

Beatrice came to me this morning trying to put on a pair of footed pajamas - the fleece kind that zip all the way up the front. She had both of her feet in and was having trouble getting her arms in because the jammies were turned inside-out.

"Mom," she said, "can you fix these arm-holders?"

The Newest Member of the Family, 2

I found one of these nasty little guys a few days ago and just knew that he would be adored by my tomboy girls. I popped him into a great big jar along with a ton of leaves and figured they would enjoy watching him crawl around and eat 50x his weight in greens every day. Well, it was short-lived because he almost immediately built his cocoon! It was really awesome to watch the fat, neon green guy become a fluffy tan puff in the corner of the jar. The girls check on him everyday and sometimes Beatrice carries the jar around the house when I'm not looking.

I did some research and discovered that he's probably a polyphemus moth. They stay in their cocoons for about two weeks, so check back with us then to see if he survived the transformation! I'm really hoping he will!!

May It Never Be!!

This week is VBS at St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church - the small-town church here in Frontenac that we've become a part of. (The transition from Presbyterian to Lutheran is ongoing and something for another post!!) My girls have never been a part of VBS before because we were out of town last year when it happened in C'dale and I was really excited to get them involved - I even volunteered to bring sea-themed snacks for the kids everyday (also something for another post!) Maggie especially is very excited to go each day and all morning asks when it's time for bible school, tells the stories she has learned so far, talks about her teacher and the kids she's met, and sings the two songs her class is memorizing to sing for the congregation on Sunday.

Monday after the first day of VBS she came to me looking a bit puzzled. She said, "Mom, is Wool bad?" I was shocked! Wool is the Best Thing Ever!! Why would she think it's bad? Indignant I gasped, "What are you talking about??"

"Well," she said, "In our song it says 'We were drowning in an ocean of wool. Then came Jesus, now to Heaven we'll go.' So is wool bad?"

"Not WOOL, Maggie!" I laughed. "Woe! Drowning in an ocean of WOE."

Although, someone might perchance drown in the ocean of my knitting stash if they aren't careful...

Obie is Mobile!

Friday Foto

As you can tell from Bee's face, she just accidentally picked a tomato off of the plant behind her. The cherry ones are just beginning to turn orangey red. Everything else in the garden is green and waiting to be ripe. Hopefully it will all ripen before I have to start covering the garden to ward off the impending frost! This is turning out to be the coldest July on record for Minnesota. Go figure. My garden looks a little bit better than this up close, but you can see that at least the marigolds are going gangbusters! I think that next year we'll double the garden area. And get some sturdier tomato cages.

Just to reiterate that it's been a frigid July here in MN, here is the Friday Foto from July 17th. (I didn't get it on here before we left for Family Camp.) We decided to take a day and go camping with Rob before we left for the week. It turned out to be 59 degrees that day. Yes, we're all wearing jeans, sweatshirts, jackets, socks, and shoes at the end of July. No one should have to wear shoes in July. You can tell that Beatrice is thrilled about the whole thing.

Whitewater State Park

Elba, Minnestoa

We actually enjoyed ourselves and look forward to going back to camp here if it ever warms up. (I'm not holding my breath until that happens...)