Science Lesson

In an earlier post I talked about Levi's obsession with caterpillars and our quest for catching them, keeping them alive long enough to build cocoons, and hopefully have beautiful butterflies.  Well, we were successful at getting some cocoons, but not butterflies...just moths.  Clarification - 1 moth.  Honestly the moth was a little creepy.  I just shivered writing about him.  Yuck!  I digress.


Several weeks ago we found a bright green bug we assumed was some sort of caterpillar.  It looked just like this:

Since the "normal" looking caterpillar (see below) turned into a moth we thought we might get lucky and this one (assuming he/she lived) might turn into a butterfly.  

Well, literally like a day or two after we caught him we thought he was beginning to make some sort of cocoon, but it looked a lot like this:

Aaron thought it was a cocoon, but I seriously had my doubts and figured we had just killed another poor caterpillar.  This cocoon looked nothing like our other ones or ones I'd seen online.  I mean it literally looked just like a brown, dead version of what we had put in there.  But for whatever reason we just left it there, untouched for the last couple of weeks.

Well last night I saw something flying in the container and low and behold is was a wasp!

We had no idea how it had gotten in there, but assumed it must have slipped through the tiny cracks at home small development stage.  Well today we cleaned out the container to use to catch fireflies and low and behold the brown, dead caterpillar really was a cocoon and the wasp had come from it.  I had never heard of such so thus began my obsession to find out what I could.  Here are some interesting facts you probably never knew and really could care less to know now.  Turns out there is something called a parasitic wasp and it takes over the caterpillar in order to grow.  I don't think this is exactly what happened in our case.  I think our caterpillar turned into a cocoon and the wasp was already inside of it and grew instead.  However, if you really want to be educated you can check it all out here.

So there you have it.  We were hoping for a butterfly, expecting a moth, and got a wasp.  Go figure.

Lately

So here is our lately in pictures.  Just snapshots of the last month and what we've been up to.  Nothing spectacular just life.  Well I guess when you think about it that in itself is pretty spectacular.  At least my life anyway.

Siblings.  Best friends.  

 Went to Asheville and ate at Chick-fil-A.  This is just Levi being silly.  Something he's doing more and more often now.  I love it.  Moving to NC has really opened him up.

 Naomi smiling.  I know it doesn't look like it, but it is the cutest thing in the world.  Cheese!

 We went to GA the middle of June.  Aaron has a presentation there so we made a little trip out of it.  My parents church was doing a VBS kickoff and we stopped by.  Gave us time to hang with some friends and family we don't see often enough.  

 She was content in the stroller and then...

 she just had to sit by her Poppy.  

 Aaron's birthday was that same weekend we were in GA so we did a little celebrating.  We bunked at my sisters' place and DQ came to our rescue with a cake.  Delicious it was.

 We are lame and had no candles so he blew out a candle from a jar.  Happy 32nd Birthday Honey!

 Naomi never falls asleep outside of her schedule except if we are in the car.  This was a rare occasion, but she was a cutie.

 Found her like this after her nap one day.  

 My parents came for a visit this past weekend.  They actually took Levi to their cabin for some bonding and we had Naomi for the day.  It was a sweet time to be able to give her some undivided attention - something she doesn't get very often.  When they brought Levi back we took them to Cataloochee to see the elk.  It was a little early, but we were able to see a few up close.

 It is calving season (having their babies) so the Elk Bugle Corp (volunteers that inform the visitors about the elk and help protect both the elk and visitors from one another) were out in full force.  The antlers were theirs.  

 Last but not least we have superhero mania at our house.  Not just with Levi, but Naomi as well.  She gets her hands on his cape and you better not even think about taking it away.  I finally made her one of her own, but haven't gotten any pictures yet.  

 Of course we had to have one in blue too.

 We recently has a big boy celebration here with Levi graduation from his car seat to a booster!  It has actually been long overdue, but with the move it has just gotten pushed back, not to mention that he wasn't too keen on the idea.  In case you don't know my son at all he hates change.  Period.  We made a big deal about it and was really excited.  I on the other hand need my children to stop growing up so quickly.   

Until the next installment....

B.I.T.S.

The kids & I have been enjoying this new silly song.  Enjoy!

Birthday Fun

 Levi is 4!  I can't believe it.  We of course had a wonderful time celebrating his birthday with friends and family.  We were in GA the weekend before his birthday and had a party to celebrate with family and a few friends.  He loved it and got exactly what he asked for...a water hose!!!  I'm still not sure why he wanted it, but he had been asking for it for weeks so that is what he got.  He was thrilled and has asked to use it several times.  The only problem is that our rental property in NC doesn't have an outside water hookup for it :(  We are working on getting a solution so he can use it soon.  We also want to send a big shout out to Lou Lou for making his totally awesome monster truck cake.  He loved it!  He got so many wonderful things.  Lots of cars, a net for catching fish & bugs, clothes, a water hose, and the bird game!  Thanks to everyone who helped us celebrate!

 Gramps even got his Batman car up and running again!

 Levi's actual birthday fell on Memorial Day this year.  Granddaddy, Grandmama, & Cara came up for a visit and we spent the day doing all the things that Levi loves doing in NC.  We went to the NOC center and watched some kayakers do tricks and then we went a visited a few waterfalls.  I made some cupcakes for us to celebrate his actual birthday and we had a mini party before they had to head back home.

 The birthday boy!

 Opening his presents he got a new fishing pole and 2 new VeggieTale movies!  Granddaddy & Grandmama also gave him a spray attachment for his waterhose!

 After Aaron's folks left we headed across the street to the park to grill our dinner.  Levi even caught a fish in his new net!  We had a great time together playing in the river and celebrating Levi's big day!

At the end of the day we had this awesome rainbow above the mountains in our backyard.  It was quite fitting for the wonderful day we had celebrating our son's birthday.  Levi is truly a blessing from God and we are so thankful he is part of our family.  His smile and humor brighten each day and his love for life is so contagious.  We love you and are so proud of our little guy!

Gulf Shores

A few weeks ago we went on vacation to Gulf Shores, AL.  We had never been before and were able to use a condo from a family friend.  We LOVED it!  The beach was so nice and the water was so clear!  We bought a canopy and set it up for our beach days.  It was wonderful and allowed us to spend lots of time at the beach without getting too hot in the sun.  The ocean was thriving with life.  We saw dolphins and tons of stingrays in the water.  It was really cool how they'd swim around you and you could see them.  I bet there were 15 or so at one time.  We even saw a shark!  Don't worry it was a small one, but it did chase us to the shore!  We guessed it was about 3 feet long and even though it may not have been extremely dangerous I'm pretty sure it would have dampened the vacation if it had gotten a hold of any of us.

There was lots to do in Gulf Shores.  We visited the local zoo also known as The Little Zoo that Could.  We were able to feed some of the animals which the kids loved.  Levi's favorite part was feeding this little deer.  He even asked if we could get him one when we got back home.  So far we haven't found any, but we are still looking :)  They had lots of animals and they were all close enough to see and enjoy.  The kids absolutely loved it!  Our favorites were the alligators, lions, and tigers.  We took the ferry one day across the bay and visited the estuary.  There were lots of fish to see and we enjoyed the ferry ride as well.

At night we did a little crab hunting on the beach.  We found lots of crabs and we all had a good laugh watching Aaron try to catch them so the kids could see them.  We also found tons of shells to bring back and even decided to put some in Levi's new sandbox that he got for his birthday.

We also had some wonderful food while we were there.  We ate some great seafood at Tacky Jack's and some good home-styled food at Lambert's.  Levi liked Lambert's because they throw rolls at you.

I think our kids favorite parts of the trip  were the SAND, the BALCONY, and the POOL!  They loved digging and pouring sand on each other, building sand castles and of course burying Poppy in the sand.  Levi even got brave and let us bury him a little.  The pool was Levi & Naomi's favorite spot as well.  Levi was getting really good at using his floaties and swimming without any assistance.  I think he'll be a great swimmer in the years to come.  Naomi absolutely loves the water.  She is definitely our water bug.  She would get in and immediately want to get out and walk to the side and jump in again.  I'm pretty sure they would have spent every second at the pool if we'd have let them.  The balcony was a big hit with both little ones.  I think we had the door open to the balcony the entire time we were there and they spent every moment we were in the condo on the balcony.  They loved watching the boats come in and out of the bay and of course they could see the pool from there as well!  We all had a terrific time and are already looking forward to going back!