Butterfly Afternoons

Can I tell you how much I am loving June? Loving. It. The weather is finally warm and the flowers are blooming and the butterflies are out. Today was such a beautiful day, the kids and I couldn't stand to stay inside for very long. Dax and Arden had their art class at the park this morning, so Corbie and I played at the playground while the big kids painted on t-shirts. Cora refuses to swing in the "baby" swings, and takes it as a personal insult if I suggest them. (She has a similar view of high chairs and booster seats). So I have to take her to the big-kid swings, giggling all the way. As I carefully push her, she always shrieks "HIGH-AH! HIGH-AH!" I am always worried she is going to fall out, but she is fearless. I never push her as high as she wishes I would (I am such a mean mom!).

After class (and a quick trip to the potty for Dax), we all played at the park for a while. We had lunch out on the deck and then played in the backyard until nap time. Unfortunately we had to go back inside for naps. Dax is usually still a pretty good napper, but he decided not to participate in naps today, which was a bummer for me. But as soon as Corbie woke up we headed outside again to play in our fabulous pool!

I hear you thinking to yourself, "I didn't know they had a pool." Oh yes, we do. It even has a slide. Ta-da!

Someday I would love to have an actual, real life, in-the-ground pool, but for now this works for us. The kids probably have just as much fun and I don't have to worry they will drown. They slid and splashed for hours. Arden, of course, has to turn everything into gymnastics: While we were outside, a butterfly fluttered by and landed on some of our flowers. The kids love butterflies and pretty much all kinds of bugs, so they all ran over and crowded around to take a look. It was all I could do to stop them from grabbing the butterfly in their wet little fists to get a better look at it. Cora especially is fond of picking up bugs and showing them to me. Her favorites are potato bugs and snails. She won't pick up spiders (she screams at them instead), but will show me potato bug after potato bug as long as she can find them. She always says something like: "Wook, Mom! A tay-to bug! It's a baby one! It's soooo cute!" I never thought of potato bugs as cute, but if you say so, Cors. It's cute. She will hold them and love them until she accidentally drops them or until they, um..."break" as she calls it. Anyway...

Once I convinced the kids that the butterfly did not want to be held OR petted OR touched OR kept in a bottle etc., I went to get my camera and took a couple of pictures of our pretty visitor:

By the way, Dax is doing pretty well with the potty training, and stayed dry all day today! Atta boy little man!!