Butterfly Day at the Desert Botanical Gardens

A few weeks ago, we headed out to the Desert Botanical Gardens.  I love the botanical gardens.  I especially love that, once a month, they offer a free admission day.  In the spring, that even includes admission into the butterfly exhibit, which is amazing in a way that I can barely even begin to describe.

Since it's ridiculously late and this post is seriously image-heavy, I'm going to let the pictures do most of the talking...

Boo, getting ready to load up and hydrating before a long, hot afternoon.

LOVE these glass sculptures.  I have no idea how they don't get broken in bad weather.

All ready to spend the afternoon looking at amazing things.

Turns out that, this year, instead of offering free admission for the day, they offer free admission for half of the day.  We ended up arriving about ten minutes before they wanted to start letting people in and, given that it would have cost quite a hefty sum for tickets for all of us, we opted to hang outside the gates and have lunch first.  There were lots of neat things to look at out there, too.

I so love this.  It makes me want one somewhere in the house.  As if that wouldn't be pretentious.

 Once inside, there was SO much to see!

Enthralled.

Riding in style.

She was happier in there than she appears to be.  Honest.

I love this tree.

Hummingbird!

And then...butterflies!

Boo was SO EXCITED.

She knew she wasn't allowed to touch the butterflies...so she bent down and kissed one instead. <3

I adore this child. <3

A Texas Mountain Laurel...which I never saw in Texas.  It smelled like grapes.

A really cool art installation.

Quail!

Bug LOVES to run!

She's chatting with a chipmunk that was in the plants.

They got SO close.

See?

 

These lovely women - who's names are escaping me - chatted with us for quite awhile.  Very nice ladies!

 

Terrible photo of me, but Bug is so stinkin' adorable.  That smile!

There was a LOT that we didn't get to see.  With only spending half of the day there, we basically saw the butterflies, took a short walk and stopped for lunch before heading out.  There's quite a lot more.  (Seriously.  We've been probably four times so far and there's still one half of the place we haven't seen, yet.)  We're looking forward to heading out again soon and taking some of the other trails.  And, of course, seeing the butterflies again!

Easter, Part I

I know it's not Easter yet, but we've already done our big family celebration.  My sister's ex-husband has their kids for the weekend, so we did the big family thing last night.

I have to admit, I'm a little surprised (and quite pleased!) that their Easter baskets are still around.  This was the third year we've used these baskets, and they're just made of felt.  I'd hoped they'd last for a few years, but I'm kind of surprised that they've survived three years, three moves and some pretty rough handling in the playroom.  Considering that I think I paid $1.50 for them, I'd say we've gotten our money out of them.

I'm not sure why but, this year, Bug and Boo were both a little obsessed with wearing their Easter baskets as hats.

 

 

Bug had a lot of fun dying eggs with his cousins.  Boo was still a little young to take part (in my opinion), but she also didn't seem terribly interested in it.  She played outside for awhile, then just kind of orbited the table as the bigger kids finished up the eggs.

Bug dyed ALL of his eggs green.  It's his favorite color.

Then it was time to hide the eggs!

I'm a little embarrassed to say that we hid eleven dozen eggs.  Yep...eleven dozen.  In my sister's backyard, which is about the size of a postage stamp.  (And we ended up leaving another 18 eggs in the fridge.  I can't even imagine where we'd have put them!)  Luckily, we were hiding eggs for little kids, so putting them in plain sight was totally acceptable.

 

I was particularly proud of this balancing act.

 

 

Eventually, we just took to tossing them onto the lawn...

 Being the youngest, Boo got first crack at the yard.  We gave her a head start of about 30 seconds or so, so she could figure out what was going on before the big kids plowed her down in their quest for eggs.  She picked up on it pretty quickly and did really well on her own, though she did have parental help in reaching some of the eggs she found but could get to on her own.

 

And the hunt is on!

Afterwards, the kids sat down and counted out their loot.  Mom gave them each a quarter for each real egg they found, and all of the plastic eggs had some change inside them.  Considering the number of eggs out there, they all banked even though most of the eggs only have a few cents inside them.

Not sure how I didn't get a picture of Bug with his eggs, too...

And then they attempted to eat ALL of the real eggs.  Before dinner.

We'll do something low key on Easter, but they really seemed to enjoy the big deal. ;)

Oh, Hello! - and A Farmer's Market ;)

Oh, look!  I still have a blog!

I'd apologize for not having updated in...forever...but, well, we've been living our lives. ;)

And I've got a few pictures to prove it.

Last week, we headed out to the big farmer's market.  As much as I talked about markets last year and the year before, it's actually the first time we've headed out this season.  There's just been too  much other stuff going on!

Bug is four now, and decided that HE was going to push Boo (almost two!) in her stroller.  She doesn't ride in it often, so she was pretty tickled by the whole thing.  He even pushed her around - with some minimal steering assistance - for  about ten minutes before he gave up on it.

We saw some really great stuff.  Flowers and veggies and some super yummy prepared foods.

The kids loved the veggies.

Boo watching the live band while we ordered lunch.

We got the BEST hot dogs ever from these guys...

Seriously.  SO good.

All of the hot dogs are named after actual dogs, which was cool.  I got the Igby - blue cheese, cole slaw and bbq sauce.  Sounds maybe a little strange, but I've craved another ever since.

After lunch, we picked up some super yummy, all natural popsicles.

Bug got chocolate raspberry.

I got prickly pear and passionfruit, but Boo snagged it immediately.  She did allow me a small taste.  Quite yummy.

And, yes, she finished the WHOLE thing.

Market and McDonalds

Perhaps not two things I'd normally put in the same sentence, but that's how our day worked out. :)

This morning was not-a-million-degrees, so we decided to head out to the farmer's market.  I called Mom to see if she wanted to come along and she said my nephew had a school holiday, so they both joined us.  We loaded the boys into the wagon (maybe not necessary, but they loved it), and Boo into the stroller (which we hardly ever use, so she was thrilled) and headed out.



It was awesome.  I've really missed going to the farmer's market regularly.

And I brought home some pretty, pretty veggies.



(In addition to what's pictured, we also brought home corn, sweet potatoes and a bunch of pretty little apples.  And Mom picked up something called a lemon cucumber...which is a cucumber that looks surprisingly like a lemon.  Go figure.)

We hung out at the park for a bit.  The boys exploring and finding treasures in the dirt.



(Bug with an eraser shaped like a cat.)

Boo ran around trying to keep up, and beelining towards the mud.



So I ended up holding her a lot.  She was not pleased.



(This is the first picture of Boo where I think she looks like me at all.)

Then it started getting hot and we were hungry, so Mom suggested we move the party to McDonald's - a rare treat!  This is the first time we've been since Boo has been even kind of mobile and she jumped out there like an old pro.

(I was right there ready to catch her the whole time.  Honest.)







She ended up making it up to the fourth step before it got too steep.  My nephew was so amazing with her.  He cheered her on the whole time she was trying to climb, and helped her down when she thought she was stuck.  Very sweet.

Bug didn't stop moving once. ;)



(Haha.  While tagging this post, I realized that ALL of the veggies were already listed.  Guess we have some solid favorites.)

Bug's Bread

A couple of days ago, Bug asked to bake bread.  And then proceeded to do it by himself.  I measured out the ingredients for him, but he did the rest all bu himself - choosing the recipe, getting everything ready to go, and watching and questioning the entire process.  (We used a bread machine, though might do it by hand next time.)  He even told me that baking bread was "more fun than watching tv" - high praise!

Terrible photography aside, the bread turned out great!  It was SUPER yummy!  He was so very proud of himself. :)  (And I'm super proud of him, too!)



We devoured the first loaf of bread pretty much immediately, so he asked to bake another loaf.  So my 3.5 year old baked two loaves of bread in one day.  I can see us making this an addition to our daily non-routine.

The recipe we used:

1 cup water
1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons oil
1 cup flour
1/2 cup oatmeal
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons yeast

It turned out so light and fluffy and tasty.  Mmm...bread...

Sashiko Sneak Peek

After having done a bit of embroidery (and looking at waaaaaaaaay too many pretty things on flickr), I decided to try my hand at sashiko again.

I really think I love it.

I definitely love the way my first two projects are working out.  Sneak peeks only, because they're going to someone who sometimes reads the blog.  Sorry.  I'll post some pictures of the completed projects after Christmas. ;)

Fire Relief

Just a quick post to introduce an idea...

Texas has caught on fire, which is alarming.  And it's been a helpless feeling to catch little bits of news and see photos of places that I knew enveloped in smoke and fire.  As yet, no one I know personally has lost their home, but friends and family of friends have lost everything.

A friend put me in touch with a woman helping with relief efforts near Bastrop and I've gone to work.  (And it looks like there's some help coming from a post on one of my flickr groups - <3!)





Picked some fabric and started making necessities bags.



The idea is to stuff them with things like toothbrushes, soap, etc.  I know it won't be much in the long run, but maybe a bag of needed items, crafted with love, might brighten someone's day just a little bit.

Rock Gardening...Sort Of

Earlier this week, we finally (finally, finally, finally!) got enough of a rain for it to cool down a bit in the evening.  So we took the opportunity to head out into our poor, deserted yard for awhile.  I dug out the last bit of my sun-cooked summer garden failure, Richard and Bug picked up random bits of junk from the yard, and Boo bee-lined to her favorite - the rocks.

She was having so much fun shoveling them that I tried to get a picture that captured her joy.

At first, she kept looking way over my head and past me whenever I called her name.  



And giving me this weird fake-baby half-smile.  I don't think I've ever seen this expression outside of this series of pictures.



And then she started talking to me, presumably about what she was working on.  Boo is very vocal, just not so verbal, yet.  (And someday she's going to hate me for taking this picture.)



And then she just ignored me and went about her work.



Bug was having fun, too, looking at how metal shavings behaved on a magnet.

Desert Critters

We have, in the past year, learned a bit about differences in wildlife between Houston and Phoenix.

There are things I miss, not being near Houston: deer, frogs (which are here, too, just not in the same abundance), squirrels (I've seen one, here), vultures, hawks, mosquitoes big enough that you can see them coming (versus the sneaky, painful microscopic version here)...all sorts of things.  Which is not to say that I haven't been impressed by the wildlife here.  I've seen a roadrunner, more rabbits than I ever saw in Texas, a jackrabbit, wild lovebirds...all sorts of things.

But.

There is one bit of desert wildlife that I am not at all thrilled to have met.




Look a little closer.



That's right.  That's a scorpion.  A LIVE one.  Thankfully, it didn't come from my house...though Richard was kind enough to bring it by to visit.  He wanted Bug to see it.

As I recall, our conversation went something like this:

R: "I brought something home for Bug to look at."

Me: "Oh? What?"

R: "A scorpion."

Me: *stunned silence* "What?  Not a live one."

R: "Oh yeah, it's alive.  Don't worry it's tiny."

Me: *beginning to freak out* (Because the tiny ones are dangerous, you know.)  "What?!  What are you going to do with it once he's looked at it?!"

R: "Let it go."

Me: *now in full on freak-out* "NOT HERE?!"

He assured me not, and said that he hadn't expected such a strong response from me.  Holy crap.  A SCORPION.

And, yeah, it was tiny.  And maybe a little bit cool.  But, holy crap.  A scorpion.  *shudder*

Oh, Hello!

Well, it's been ages and ages since I've posted, and I feel pretty terrible about that.  Which is partly why it's been so long since I've posted.  You know how that goes, I hope.

Our Arizonaversary was the last week of June, Boo's first birthday was on the 4th of July, and the one year anniversary of my sister's cancer diagnosis was shortly after that.  It was kind of a lot to handle emotionally, as it turns out.  I had all these great blog posts written out in my head and every time I tried to sit down to write any of them...I just couldn't do it.  I think, at the one year mark, there was just too much I was still trying to process.

And then, it's just been kind of busy, too.  Which seems kind of insane because on any given day I'd be hard pressed to tell you anything useful that I'd done.  And yet, stuff has been getting done. ;)

So...I'll start working on some posts. :)