Best Kept Secret

We just visited the best kept secret in our metro area: The Butterfly Garden in Saylorville! We took a little trip out to see trees, birds, flowers, and butterflies. I forget that nature is just a drive away. Hopefully, we'll be frequenting this place more often. . .

I took Paul's camera and took photos of flowers and the butterflies. These are the before pictures in the collages. I then edited them through Picnik.com and the pictures evolved into something pretty cool! (not to pat my back or anything, but I'm patting my back!). It was like extreme photo makeover. Thank goodness for photo-shops, because I cannot set up the lens to ever make pictures come out this way!


We saw Painted Ladies, Monarchs, and a butterfly I'm going to have to look up! That little house is a butterfly house, Connor had to teach me that because they have these houses in their school garden.

Edited photo of a Blue Tail Painted Lady? OR it's a different species. . .

Same butterfly, different landing pad.

My favorite, the Monarch perched on a Zinnia.

This is the species that I'm not sure of. . . it has a blue tail and it's brown! Was God good at coordinating colors when he created these critters? He has a great sense of fashion! We humans just need inspiration from nature.

A Hibiscus? It was growing wild with the poison ivy and other foliage.

And last but not least, some pics of people (1960s style!)

Evan, Connor, Pouty Marin, Pouty Olivia (on cue), & Angie

(that picture of Evan in the right hand corner looks like Connor when he was a babe, I had to look twice!)

By the way, someone in our house is having a Butterfly Birthday Party! I'm getting excited to make a Butterfly Birthday Cake!

Eastbound

Last summer, Connor confessed that he wanted to visit Chicago. I'm not sure where he got this but I thought what a nice idea! We can visit Aunt Cindy and visit the sites. When I asked Connor what he wanted to visit, he said he would be fine just having some "family time." We had a nice balance of each. Our activities included:

• 
  
  playing LIFE


• 
  
  Oberweis' Icecream Parlor


• 
  
  Rode the Train


• 
  
  Field Museum


• 
  
  Sox vs. Sox game


• 
  
  Rehm Pool @ night, followed by movie


• 
  
  Dave's Legos


• 
  
  Millenium Park


• 
  
  Michigan Lake
  
  

Connor takin' in some evening sun

Cooling off in Aunt Cindy's pool; this was Olivia's favorite time.

Sitting out a safety break

Lovin' the architectural designs in Chicago

This is great visual stimulation for me, since I'm a visual person!

Building the next Sears Tower

Olivia is proud of her tower

Future architect!

The bean in Millenium park

Reflection fun

Can you find us?

Livie thinks that Connor needs a cool down

Splashin' around at Millenium park

Sox vs. Sox game

The boys were on television; foul ball came their way but they didn't catch it.

Dave & Connor
White Sox fan vs. Red Sox fan!

Field Museum

"Sue" at Field Museum

Sears Tower

Not a cloud a sight and it was a HOT, HOT summer in the city.

Thanks Aunt Cindy for taking us in!

We had a great time in Chicago!

Birthday Girls

July is a busy month for birthdays. . .

four of our neices celebrated their birthdays

Marin turns four!

Ada & Evie turn one!

Gwen turns one!

These girls are full of life and fill other's lives with joy.

Have a great year girls!

These Boots are made for Walking

Grandma found boots at a garage sale. . . and Olivia went on a boot binge!

She wore her boots for two weeks straight (during the heat wave streak mind you!)

As you can see, they go with everything!

Gotta Love Pink Boots!

Summer Time Rehash

Camp Out @ G&G's Farmstead

Family photo on "the rock"

G&G Mehmen

Jolyn, John, Gwen, & Jackie

The boys are brave riding with Jaydin!

Like Father, Like Son

Brent, Alex, Jake, Emma, & Brooke

Cousin Photo!

Gwen is willing to share her birthday cake.

Happy First Birthday!

Grandpa with his kiddos

Campfires, sparklers, & fireworks!!

The girls havin' a good time with Grandma

Two Weeks Left

Our summer is dwindling down and we have two weeks left. I have been gravitating towards organizational activities; such as browsing magazines, viewing The Container Store website, and dreaming about what it would be like if my basement was organized by the blink of my eye and a wiggle of my nose. (How did the toys multiply so fast????!!!)

We've got big dreams for our kitchen, doing a face-lift by changing the paint color and maybe finally place new flooring??? We'll see how motivated Paul feels!

Speaking of organizing, I've been busy coordinating my fall practicum with the local college, finishing up summer classes, and getting ready for the kids' first day of school and fall activities. Time to fill up the calendars, get up early in the mornings, and getting to bed at a decent time!

Where did this summer go?

In the next week I will place blog-worthy photos of how we spent our summer!