Familiar landmark

We see this every time we go to Colorado, but this time on the way home we caught a gorgeous sunset with it!

Feeding the ducks...and other things

So I don't even have a picture of the boys feeding the ducks, but we more entertained by other things. For one, there was this cute little squirrel that let me take his picture. Then he played hide and seek with the boys...see him on the left side of the tree while the boys are looking for him on the other side? :-)

Then there were the Canadian geese. I'm sorry, but I just don't like them. The boys decided to help me keep them at bay and did quite well at stomping them off. They're just so greedy!

Butterfly news

I was so excited to find 6 more Monarch eggs on my milkweed plant in my flower bed! Of those, 4 survived, so I have 5 tiny caterpillars crawling around chomping down on the milkweed I picked from the roadside. Here's one of them:

I also just now found a Black Swallowtail on my parsley, so now we have that process going, too. He's a medium-sized caterpillar, so he's been eating on my parsley for a little while, which was how I found out I had one...the tips of my parsley plant were eaten off.
I'm one of the few who actually plant things so they CAN be eaten by caterpillars. :-) Ha!

Here's Mr. Swallowtail: (Sorry the picture turned sideways on me!)

So this is my set-up inside my butterfly house. Milkweed and Monarchs on the left, Parsley and Black Swallowtail on the right. Stones to hold it down in all this wind we've been having! :-)

Wildflower photo adventure

Goofy little guys

Gotta take a picture when their goofiness is actually not getting them in trouble. :-)

Here's spiderman as a one-man band

And the boys trying their new bookshelf on for size. :-) I'll show you pics of it all set up really soon. It's done...just haven't snapped the pic.

My violet bloomed

Just trying to be like my momma. :-) The violet queen! Oh, wait, there are two violet queens...her and my mother-in-law! :-)

Early Father's Day

Guess where we ate tonight? :-) It was yummy! Steaks for Daddy! and deeee-licious key lime pie!

This little guy would not stop eating! He ate his kid's steak, rice, ate dessert and then went over and finished up L's mac-n-cheese! Somebody must be growing! Upwards! :-)

Here it is...the first Monarch egg!

Yep, it's that little tiny white speck on the leaf.
Found this one in my very own flower garden on some milkweed. Broke out the butterfly house tonight. Very excited!!!!!

More rain pics

Here's one of the stumps from around our burnpile that's about to get sucked down the culvert...



My soggy patio...thankfully this drained pretty quickly after it stopped raining.

Our rushing river down the hill from our house...normally we can't even see the water going through the narrow creekbed.

Rain, rain and more rain!

Here's the culvert going under the road going past our house. The creek leading up to it filled up so fast once it started raining yesterday since the ground around was so saturated from all the rain we've already had. It was something to watch it keep filling up. It was kind of scary, too. The current was so strong...just took everything with it that it came across. We watched as the creek carried away all the heavy tree stumps we had sitting around our burnpile for chairs. They were carried away after the creek was already higher than the top of the culvert, but the stumps still went through since the pull of the water just sucked them down in.

Going...

Going...

Gone!

Flowers and butterflies!

I think I better rename my blog to boys, blooms and butterflies! :-) Just had to share some of the shots I got the other day at a wildflower area.

Prairie coneflower, native to KS

My first Monarch picture! Drinking from some milkweed...but no sign of eggs! Must be patient!

Prairie coneflower, another color

Queen Anne's Lace and Black-eyed Susan

The newest Olympic event

...not sure what they'll call this one...maybe the Creeper Swing??? Boys will be boys! They thought up this one all on their own. But do notice that Dad stepped in and added the protective gear...helmets, gloves, better rope. Safety 1st! Maybe it'll prevent a few scrapes. :-) They had so much fun with this. Now just to keep them from doing it (and other stunts) while we're not looking. We do try to always be outside with them when they're playing, but sometimes being around the corner trimming bushes is freedom for two conniving little boys. It's typical, though, to think that if you ask mom and dad for help, they won't let you do it. A lot of times that is true...just depends on how dangerous it is. Ha! Ya gotta let them have a little fun, though, and give them a chance to use their minds to create something. I'm glad Daddy let them do this and give them a lesson in caution. Wonder if it sunk in?

Here's Logan's ride (with Trevin as driver):

Here's Trevin's ride (with none other than Daddy as driver!):

Logan riding bike

Yep, it's training wheels still, but one step at a time. He's getting fast on this one. Amazing how our confidence builds little by little with experience.

Hydrangea at its peak!

Waiting for the Monarchs...

I saw my 2nd Monarch of the season today...1st one on our property. I'm so excited! I have this lovely little butterfly weed waiting for it in the garden.

There is a lot of milkweed growing on the roadsides this year, too, so I'm going to start looking for eggs and start my Monarch raising early this year. Usually I don't start till fall migration time in August/September. Time to break out the butterfly house!