Happy Birthday Bryan

We officially have a wonderful teenager in the house.  Yup, I said wonderful.  It's my personal theory that the teen years are often made much harder by the attitude of the adults in the teen's life.  I'm looking forward to these next few years as we watch Bryan find his way.

Bryan requested a chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting and chocolate peanut butter ice cream.  May I say yum? 

The boys went to the movies last night and everyone headed to the science museum today.  Everyone had a blast.  Happy birthday Bryan.  I hope you enjoyed yourself.

The Release of the Butterflies

The butterflies hung around for a few days and then we decided it was time to set them free.  It's easier that way than waiting too long and ending up with a never ending cycle of butterflies to raise. 

Butterflies

We currently have 7 butterflies.  No pictures at the moment but I'll try to fix that tomorrow. They seem to be much more docile than the ones we've had in the past. I almost never see them flying around.  Kind of wondering why that is but they are very beautiful to look at.

Happy Birthday Sean!

Sean turned eleven today.  Somehow that seems rather old.  Thankfully he is a rather laid back kid since none of his presents arrived in time for his birthday.  Ok, one did but as usual it is a joint gift to share with Bryan so we are keeping it until next week.  And Mom and Dad will be taking both older boys to the drive-in next weekend when we have babysitters for their present.  Yes, we like to encourage experiences rather than presents for their birthdays, especially as they get older.  Memories typically last longer than gadgets, especially around here it seems.

Sean requested chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and chocolate sprinkles and chocolate ice cream.  You've got to love simple and easy.  And pure chocolate overload.  Even without presents, Sean said he had a great day.

And here is just an extra picture of chocolate cuteness of a child who said "yup" when asked if the cake was good.  And at one point managed to shove half a piece of cake into his mouth.  He's learning early to eat the good stuff quickly before it disappears.

Testing the Mead

And when I go too long without taking the pictures off the camera, I discover things I forgot about.  Today I found the pictures from the kids tasting the mead.  They helped make mead so they could learn about the different brewing processes when they made root beer.  So, yes, it's in a beer cup but it's all in the name of science and they all decided it was gross I do believe.

The First Butterfly

The first butterfly appeared today.  It is still just hanging out waiting for it's wings to dry so we haven't seen much action yet but I'm hoping to see a few more butterflies this weekend.  Admittedly, we aren't exactly sure how the butterflies are going to do since they received somewhat rough treatment from the younger kids who were too excited to keep their hands off the caterpillar cups.  Something tells me if they can survive in the wild that they will be ok anyway but you never know.

Chrysalis Stage

The caterpillars are now in the chrysalis stage so we are eagerly waiting for the butterflies to show up now.  Hopefully it will be soon.