RAINY DAY FUN

So, we usually don't mind the rain and it is a lot of fun to keep on swimming, or swinging or digging in the garden during the rain ... and refreshing. In fact, Boo Boo's favorite saying is "We're ducks. We don't mind the rain". But, when a stormy day sets in upon us (rather than the quick bursts of rumble and downpours we usually endure) ... well, what's a duck to do? Hmmm ...

Tea with homemade pita bread and homemade hummus ... yummy enough for a princess

Mend our broken and torn toys

Make a pouch for our block crayons ...

Make spinacoladas ... (a fancy way of saying spinach, pineapple, brazil nut milk and banana smoothie) Seriously, if you have never tried one ... they are YUM!

LORIKEETS

Today we spent the day at Butterfly World. Yes, the theme is butterflies for the summer ;-) What started out as a fun project has taken over the house. Boo Boo would go to Butterfly World every day if she could. Today, she was actually smitten by the Lorikeets. These adorable birds love people and climb all over you. Boo Boo had a chance to feed a couple their favorite snack: mango,papaya, pear juice. It looked like one of our yummy smoothies ;-)

LOTS OF BUTTERFLIES TODAY

Today was a wonderful day for butterflies. We had 8 butterflies in all emerge this morning. We had 1 Monarch, 1 Orange Barred Sulphur, 4 Gulf Fritillaries and 2 Black Swallowtails. Hope you enjoy some pics of the process in rearing each of these types.

WANNA BE FRIENDS?

ORANGE BARRED SULPHUR

Here are some pics of the process in rearing the Orange Barred Sulphur

GULF FRITILLARIES

With our first Gulf Fritillaries emerging today, I thought we would post a few pics of the. These are fast flying butterflies, so I was delighted to get a few pics with wings fully extended.

SPECIAL

One of our little Gulf Fritillaries emerged with under developed wings. We were assured by experts that she is fine, except she cannot fly. We are keeping her indoors and Boo Boo has named her "Special" because she is our special butterfly to pamper with yummy, fresh flowers every day, fruit and sugar water. She is the sweetest little butterfly and loves to crawl all over us. We took her outside in the sun and breeze today to play and now she is resting in her butterfly nursery with a yummy vase of jatropha.

FRIENDS AND SWIMMING

Boy, doesn't this look like a group of teenagers in the making. How many 2, 3 and 5 year olds just choose to go lay down on their towel and relax by the pool. We had to get a shot of Boo Boo and her friends when we saw this. Now, if they would only fall asleep and take a nap ;-)

OUR MONARCHS ARE HERE

We've been busy rearing our butterflies since we've returned from our trip to Georgia. The past few weeks have been very busy. We got a little out of hand with our little creatures. But, it was way too exciting to come home to so many caterpillars on our plants. We brought in quite a few Monarchs, Black Swallowtails, Zebra Longwings, Gulf Fritillaries, and Cloudless Sulphur. So, this past week has been a flurry of emerging Monarchs. We've released 10 over the past four days. One day we had sextuplets! Here is a cute pic with all 6 of her babies attached to Boo Boo.