Candice & Todd's blog: September 2021

Fall ball has started back again -- it's been raining a lot so things are kicking off a little slower than anticipated. Mercer's baseball is off to an even slower start (we weren't sure if there was even going to be a team at first). Maybe this has worked out like it's supposed to? The coach at this level has 2 kids on the team and is a certified pitching coach / has experience coaching high school baseball. Sounds like it will be more challenging for him.

Isabella has had 1 game so far. Not sure when M will have his first. But - he's settled on a team -- the team basically signed up for the rec league so that they could pursue the "extra" (Spikes) team to play in tournaments. He'll be playing on the same size field as before but the base path is a different length (further distance) than before.

Isabella's baseball has a unique twist this year - the league possibly did not have as many people sign up for fall ball (Spring is the big season)... so they've combined teams between ages of 8 - 12. (Two different league year.) They are switching between the field that she was supposed to play on for 9-10 year olds + they alternate fields that the 11-12 year olds play on! It's interesting, but fall is supposed to be a year of growth - not competition quite as much. The spring should settle out and the kids playing in their regular age bracket then. She's on a team with 2 other girls. (one of the girls is on the previous blog / we took her to the butterfly exhibit last month). Isabella is the little one in the back with the pink helmet in the picture above.

Speaking of butterflies, we have been looking under the leaves of the vines that are growing at the community garden all summer. We got a little impatient so ordered some caterpillars in a cup again. They came to us this year much bigger than when we ordered some caterpillars last year. It did not take long before they were making chrysalises! This first photo is just over 2 weeks ago. Not all of the caterpillars made full chrysalises.... only about half of them did. (We put them all in the netted habitat anyways.) It was a little disappointing b/c of what we paid for them + shipping.... but.... fast forward almost a week and our butterfly "situation" totally changed! :)

About 1 1/2 weeks ago -- the 1st day that one of the ("Painted Lady") butterflies we purchased popped out of the chrysalis -- we found a leaf at the garden that was COVERED in baby (Pipevine Swallowtail) caterpillars!

We put that into the netted habitat with the existing chrysalises. (More on the swallowtail caterpillars below)

We had to first celebrate the Painted Ladies that emerged!

The painted lady chrysalis are sort of ugly but also SOOO cool! they shimmer with bits of gold on them!

Isabella had a little bit of a hard time letting go of that first butterfly and wanted to wait 'til another chrysalis popped.

She let two of them go together the next day so they'd have a friend to fly with. The next day more popped. We had a total of 6 that made the metamorphosis. She let the other 4 butterflies go that had also popped in that time period the following day.

Just over a week ago, we found some under a leaf... and - there was A LOT! (19 of them on one leaf!!) When pulling the weed from our garden plot, there have been a few more little caterpillars here and there over the past week.

Looks like we're up to 30 caterpillars so far! Yikes! (The main type is the pipevine which is host plant to the pipevine swallowtail . There is also a little bit of passion vine in the net too and it is host to the gulf flitterary butterfly.) Those were found later and are tiny.

The 19 little ones (not much wider than a toothpick and only about 1/2 an inch long) are now the size of a human pinky - 1 1/2" long and wider than a pencil!!

They eat so much. SO MUCH FOOD - We have to get so many leaves from the garden. And - they poop a lot.

SO MUCH POOP. Having to clean out the cage 2-3 times per week with that many! (when they go through metamorphosis there will be a lot of blood too.

It's weird, but... I understand that they basically get liquified and certain parts move around from the original caterpillar body to form a butterfly.) Stay tuned on the butterfly pictures on the next blog! :)

Two weeks ago, we went to an overnight birthday party. One of Mercer's former teammates was turning 13. (such a big year!) His family set us up + 2 other families in hotel rooms at Great Wolf Lodge / paid for the water park.

They rented a cabana at the edge of the wave pool. Holy cow!

At first, I thought it was just going to be Todd and Mercer going, but they invited the whole family!

Isabella had 2 little girls to hang out with that she knows quite well and 2 teenage girls. They said she did NOT sleep all night (the girls were all in one room + the boys were all in a different room!) She crashed the next day at the cabana!!

Us adults hung out / stayed up late after dinner and talked til 1 am. This group REALLY knows us and our family.... and we know all of them quite well. It was fun staying up and just having great conversation!

I didn't do anything water-park wise. I sat with one of the moms and her baby at the edge of the wave pool b/c I was nervous about my arm. Todd, Mercer and Isabella did ALL of the slides and rides!

I've included all of these photos which look similar because of all of the animated poses Isabella has made!

It was nice to some of the baseball families together again. It is still a little sad that these boys won't be playing together again. We vowed to do it again... soon. (dinner and hanging out... not the water park!)

13 years ago, we went to court and swore that we would take care of this cutie. Now, this cutie is taller than me (arguably right there with Todd if not a wee bit taller) and has sideburns!