Look Who's 4!

This little guy is 4 today!  Where has the time gone?  Its hard to believe that four years ago this guy gave me the opportunity to be a mother.  A role I treasure and strive to be worthy of each day.  He has brought so much joy to our lives.  His hunger and enthusiasm for life, his creative spirit, his imagination that is unlike any other, his  love for others, and this ability to find every little thing in life the most awesome thing ever.  He brings something new to each day and has made me face my own complacency about the little things that he is so passionate about.  I love him for this.  I love him for the challenge he brings and the newness to each day he shows me.

Happy Birthday Levi!

Cocoons

We now have 2 cocoons in our caterpillar habitat!  Hopefully soon we will have 2 beautiful butterflies!  It was actually kind of neat to watch them make them.  Even though it was a several hour process we were able to watch them wrap themselves up.  It was pretty interesting.

We are heading to GA in the morning!!  My cousin's wedding is this weekend and then we are headed to the beach for a week.  When we come back we'll stay in GA another weekend to celebrate the little guy's 4th birthday.  I am so excited about seeing some family and familiar faces!

River Weekend

This weekend my parents came up for a visit.  They stayed at their cabin that is just a little more than an hour away.  They met us for breakfast Friday morning and then took the kids for the day while Aaron & I went rafting down the Nantahala.  We rented a 2 person duckie or funyak and went out on the river.  After the first set of rapids I was rethinking the whole rafting thing, but we got in a groove and the rest went pretty smoothly.  It was overcast and cool that day so it should go without saying that the water was FREEZING!  I think I screamed every time we hit rapids because the water came at me full force.  When we got to the "falls" I was a little in tears to be honest.  They gave us some complicated directions about how to go over the falls but all I heard was keep raft straight or fall out.  I was freaking out, but luckily Aaron was a great guide.  I paddled forward and he guided the raft through the rapids.  All I can say is I was smiling when it was over and we didn't flip over!  I don't own a waterproof camera so I didn't get any shots of us rafting, but the outfitter we went with took some photos of us going over the falls.  Apparently where we went over the falls is the worst part you can go over and bends your raft like a taco and throws you out.  They were surprised we stayed in the raft.  They obviously did not know how determined I was to stay in that raft.  

Saturday afternoon the kids came back home and we spent Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon at the river park across the street from our house.  The park is awesome with lush green grass, a basketball court, volleyball court, pavilion with tables and a couple of benches, tables, and grills spread around the perimeter. There is lots of space to play Frisbee or whatever else you'd like.  The park was obviously crowded, but we still enjoyed our time.  The kids mainly played on the river bank in the water or mud.  On Sunday the water was a little lower so there was more mud than there was the day before.  The park is also getting them ready for our beach trip next week.  I think they are going to love it!  As much as the kids like going there we are likely to spend a lot of summer days with our feet in the water.  

Caterpillars

The caterpillars have been out in full force at our house.  Levi easily finds 4-5 every time we go outside.  He loves them and I feel pretty bad for the poor souls since he tends to love them a little too much sometimes if you get my drift.  He found a bright green one the other day that he grew attached too.  When he came inside I noticed he had built this contraption on the porch and so I asked about it.  He enlightened me that this caterpillars was his best buddy and he didn't want it to get away and so he built this.  The caterpillars is inside the middle while pipe.  One end is closed by the chair and the other end is closed by the other pipe.  This way the caterpillar cannot get out.  Pretty ingenious for a 3 year old right!  Realizing he was going to kill all the caterpillars in our yard this way we set out to keep our caterpillars alive.

A trip to Wal-Mart = $6.
An excited kid with pet caterpillars = priceless.

We are hoping that they will build cocoons and we can watch them change into butterflies.  That is assuming that they live.  Somehow we've already managed to let one die in the one day we had them :(  Sorry little fella.  We are hoping he is in caterpillar heaven.  Hopefully none of our other friends will join him anytime soon.

Bears, Elk & a Hole in One

In Cherokee there is a little zoo that we checked out this past weekend.  The kids were free and adults were only $5, so it ended up being a pretty affordable attraction that the kids loved.  They mostly have bears, two tigers (one baby & one mama), a few monkeys, and some goats.  You could feed the bears and they would do tricks like clapping their hands to get you to give them more.  Levi absolutely loved it.  The baby tiger found Naomi quite intriguing, and the little fence that separated us didn't give me much comfort when it appeared that she might have been a good meal for him.  However, he did smile for the camera for me (see picture below).

 After our time at the zoo we went next door to play mini golf.  Levi didn't always follow the "rules" but on Hole 13 with a Par 3 he got a hole in one.  He didn't see the big deal in it, but I insisted on the photo.

 That evening we drove to the Cataloochee ranger station and campground area in the Great Smokey Mt. Nat'l Forest.  We heard that elk were in the forest and that you could seem them at the visitor center and at Cataloochee.  We've been to the visitor center twice with no such luck, but Cataloochee did not disappoint. They have radio collars on for the rangers to keep tabs on them.  They are slightly smaller than the elk our west, but not by much.  Levi was stoked, and to tell you the truth Aaron & I were too.  There were about 15 out in the field and then 2 more in another field as we were leaving that were males.  One still had his antlers.  We told Levi about how they lose their antlers in the spring/summer and they come back in the fall/winter.  Ever since when he see the wind blow he tells me "Mommy!  You see the trees moving?  I think its cold now so I think the elk growed their horns!"  We will definitely be venturing back there as fall approaches to see their "horns."

 Saturday morning we went into town to go to the Greening Up the Mountain Festival.  There was lots to see and do.  We ate hotdogs and snow cones and enjoyed the booths and music.