Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Flowers, Strawberries and Butterflies

Every season, I make a "bucket list" of things we want to see and do and I post it on our refrigerator. I never want to finish a season and say, "oh, we should have done this." So when Chris has a day off or a long weekend we try to check something off our list. This spring some things on our list were:
* take pictures with the purple flowers
* fly a kite
* have a picnic
* watch caterpillars change into butterflies
* pick strawberries
* feed the ducks
* plant flowers

Here are a few pictures from our bucket list adventures.

Every spring these amazing purple flowers fill the coast line.  I don't know when we are moving next year, so this might be our last chance to take pictures with the flowers. I know these pictures aren't professional level, but it accomplished our goal. :)





I'm a big Zulily fan, so when they had the butterfly kits on sale, I snatched them up. It was such an amazing process and we were thrilled that all ten of our caterpillars changed into butterflies! 

Our first day with the caterpillars. They were so tiny!

Watching them grow...

They all crawled up to the top and hang in their "J" positions and then made cocoons.

Watching as Papa transfers the cocoons to the net...

The hanging cocoons...

And we have butterflies! 

Early morning butterfly release (that's why we are still in our pi's).

Helping the butterflies fly out

Abe was amazed that they stayed on his hand.


One of our ten butterflies. They are called "Painted Ladies"

We have a orchard that is about forty minutes away. You can pick apples, strawberries and all sorts of berries when they are in season. When our postcard arrived in the mail telling us the strawberries were ready, we headed out with our bucket in tow! It was a beautiful day and now we have strawberries for breakfast, bread, smoothies and ice cream (I don't make jams, yet). 






But my favorite spring time event that I was most looking forward to was my first Mother's Day.  For the past four years, this day has been difficult for me, so I was looking forward to celebrating with Abram! Chris and Abe got up early and left to go get pastries, coffee and flowers.  Then we had a delicious brunch after church. It was a wonderful day! I'm so blessed to be Abe's "mama!"

Bringing me flowers on Mother's Day morning

He is so wonderful!

Now, I'm off to make our summer bucket list!! Any ideas??