Black Swallowtail Study

Two of my Black Swallowtail chrysalises hatched today...one male and one female.  It was really neat to get to compare them side by side.  So amazing!  Such perfect little creatures!

Male underside of wing: (Underside are very similar)



Female underside of wing: (a little more blue)



Male top side of wing:  (Line of yellow spots)

Female top side of wing:  (Lots of blue!) 

Hanging out together! 

In the garden...she took off right after I snapped this picture!  (I had placed her on this Lantana.) 

 

A trip to the zoo...

It was fun to see the African Penguins today.  They are a traveling exhibit, so they won't be here for much longer.  They weren't very active today, but who would be in this heat?

 

I enjoyed the wildlife who weren't in cages...  :-)  This is a Regal Fritillary.

Love these bright colored frogs!!!

 

Tarantula!!!!!

Pretty Flamingos!

My two little monkeys...climbing on the ape statue.  :-)

 

Fountains, Fireworks and Fun!!!

An evening in Atchison, KS, for the Amelia Earhart Festival!


Got in a few rides in the Carnival area.

 

It was hot, but the boys were able to cool off in this fountain...they loved it...all 3 of them!  :-)

 

  

 

 Aerobatics show before the fireworks.  This was the Wing Walker...amazing!

 

Fun with Glow sticks before the fireworks.

  

 Fireworks were amazing over the Missouri River!!!

It's hot in Topeka!

Backyard visitor...black vignetting due to photo being taken between deck railing posts.  :-)



My bird bath has really gotten used this summer!  Here is a Robin getting a drink.
 

102 degrees at 6:30 pm!




Had to cool off with some blueberry ice cream!  Yummm! 

Another backyard visitor...Black Swallowtail.  She was busy laying eggs again on the carrot tops!

Garage play time

The boys got creative this morning while Daddy was finishing up installing the new garage door opener. 


Look...I have a bone here, Mom!  (Using the stud finder!)

 

 

Doing the limbo!  :-)

 

Bird bath visitor

Enjoyed seeing "our" Oriole at the bird bath this evening.  Love watching the birds!

 

Logan's Swim Lesson

Logan really made progress in swim lessons this summer!  It is so neat to see him actually swimming!  And he's so excited about it, too!  Especially jumping off the diving board into the deep end!  :-)

Parents' Day at Swim Lessons!

Both boys did really great in swim lessons this summer and had a really great teacher!

Here is Trevin sporting his new dive!

 

Reading time and tie-dye shirts!

Every summer we try to do a new tie-dye shirt.  This summer's was a bit late...just did it yesterday, but it's done and we still have some fun summer to enjoy them in!

Love this shot...

A Giant in my garden today...

What a day!

We finally got some rain today!  It was only 1/2"...but will do some real good!  Especially since I've heard we have more heat on the way.


These clouds were beautiful this morning...though they came right after a really close thunderstorm in which the lightning knocked out our garage door opener and security system.  Ugh!  At 5:30 in the morning.  Security System still works, but it fried the wires to the siren outside...so the siren was going off at 5:30 in the morning!  Not the way I like to wake up! 

 

More butterflies!

This lady was laying eggs in our garden like crazy!  All over our carrots and parsley!  Fun times ahead!