butterflies, baseball, a birthday and an adoption day

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!  

Todd got him A-Day donuts... and made him home-made wood fired pizza.  

We also took him out to a movie - his choice - and had a bonfire after dinner / gifts.     It was fairly low-key, but we still wanted to celebrate him!!

Here are a couple of other photos from the last week.

Quick post

 so - I hate to say it, but the school year is starting out to be very very stressful.  

Not so much the 1st week of school, but... this 2nd week - because of an increase in covid cases and quarantining of students.  We've received several notices from both kids' schools this week about "someone at your child's school tested positive...."  (The notifications changed this year.  These notifications are sent IF SOMEONE IN THEIR DIRECT CLASSROOM or ON THEIR BUS tested positive.)  That means it's been close - several times - for both of them.   2nd week of school.  I have had a LOT of my students quarantining last week and this week.  We received a notice to start documenting our lessons differently for the quantity of students who are out on quarantine.  So.... I've already started taping videos of lessons and re-organizing the website that I set up for the start of school 2 weeks ago.  (sigh) 

This morning (Saturday), I got the dreaded phone call:  "Your child was identified as a close contact on Wednesday, August 11 as someone who tested positive for Covid.  She must quarantine."  I asked the location.  It was the bus.  But - on Monday she came home and said she was scared to ride the bus because the kids sitting with her were not wearing their masks.  She also heard the report on the news that was released by the CDC about cloth masks being 20% effective... surgical masks 40% effective and N-95 masks 95% effective.   We have ordered the N-95s in child-sized and are waiting on them to arrive. 

But - until then, we've been juggling carpool, after-school care, and one early pick-up.  (thankfully - the after school care was documented).  She doesn't have to quarantine.  Whew!  2 weeks down -  34 more weeks of school to go.

The numbers are, of course, increasing.  John Hopkins now posts the 28 day change.  In the past 4 weeks, there have been almost 16.8 million more cases and 267,000 deaths worldwide. (2.5 million of those positive cases were in the US and 12,322 deaths were in the US over the past 4 weeks.) The Delta variant is hitting harder in the demographic of children... and schools are re-opening without masks in many cases.  

Georgia has seen a steady increase - above is the last week for our state.  Not off to a great start, unfortunately.  

On a positive note....  

I picked Isabella up early yesterday to take her to her 1st "therapeutic riding" lesson.  The place - McKenna Farms - is interesting.  I see on their site that they help a lot of kids with physical and mental disabilities.  I wasn't quite sure if this was really suited for her, but there was a check-list for goal-setting and there are a lot of things on that list that help with social and emotional behaviors.  There was a counselor who was walking and "instructing" while there were 3 volunteers.  

One leading the horse and two on either side.  (They weren't sure of her ambulatory ability until seeing her in person.)  The counselor told me that they will scale back to 2 volunteers next lesson.... and she has full confidence that she will be able to eventually let the other 2 volunteers go as Isabella gains more control.  

Hmmm... she wants to control a horse - that's her goal!  My goal is that she gains emotional regulation, empathy, adapting to change, impulse control, following direction, task completion, etc.  The counselor strongly feels that this is attainable.  At first, we thought this would be covered by insurance, but - honestly - it was only about $5 or $10 more a lesson than at the place she went to camp for their lessons... but we're there with someone to help with SEL.  Hopefully this will be a win!   (At any rate - she gets to take lessons which she has wanted to do for a very long time!)

Here's information on the horse the therapist has paired her with:  "Waffles."  

Last weekend, we had two back-to-school events (outdoors)... one was held for school employees and their families (with free ice cream, popcorn, water, face painting, and bouncy houses.  The other was at the pool - they had an ice cream party and movie night.  "Yay".... back to school.  ;-/  ha ha.   At least the boy got some junk food and the girl got her face painted.   It really changes the way she looks!

Progress is being made on the bathroom (slowly).  The floor had to be completely re-built. 

There have been minor issues with the walls and drywall - but Todd fixed one and the guy fixed the other minor thing.  Overall, he's contentious, though, and we feel like he's been trustworthy.  Both good traits.  

Of interest - we had a chance to add more things to the time-capsule.  I put back the one from 21 years ago.... and added another letter + photos as another installment.    

We've kept a book of the renovations - and made a bunch of copies of the things we talked about doing to the house.  Most of it came to fruition.  

 

It is safely nestled under the cast iron tub.  

And is now covered with drywall.
Who knows if anyone will ever find it?!

1st day of school

A couple of days ago, we celebrated Hip-Hop's 5th birthday (a little late) by going out for ice cream & doggie ice cream...well... a few of us did. 

Mercer and a friend went out to celebrate his friend's 13th birthday (also late).  The friend's mom took them to Dave & Buster's for dinner and video game / arcade.

Yesterday was the last day of summer officially.  M spent his last week of summer helping me out in my room (because of the arm -- and also because we have contractors at the house / don't want him home alone).  Isabella was in staff camp for the week while I was in planning.  He earned some spending money for his outing with his friend.

  

The actual day before school started, Isabella had meet-and-greet in the morning.  I had mine in the afternoon.  (M had his the previous Friday.)  I had to set up a table / display.  I focused more on that than curriculum for the first days though!  

More stuff is getting done in my room that I didn't get to finish last year - but - I still had to stash some items that were not complete.  It's getting there.  

I had to dropped Mercer at home and picked Isabella at camp to come back with me to my classroom.  (She likes to play on the flat screen TV and on the computers, so she enjoys it.)  One thing she got to do -- from the inside -- watch seniors "roll" the school and the trees on campus.  (a May-retta tradition)  She thought it was kind of fun to use the t.p. like a laser obstacle course when we were on our way home.

The next morning, Mercer and I were up early and out the door before the sun came up.  Here is his "typical" - goofing off for a photo.  (but I snapped one pic) 

He's in 8th grade.

Todd took Isabella in for her 1st day.   She's starting 3rd grade at a new school - one for "Advanced Academics."  We're hoping that they both have a great year ahead!   (And that things go smoothly / that the school year is more normal this year!)

PS - here are photos of her riding the bus home for the 1st time!  (our neighbor's flowers look nice. ha!)  Her schedule is late and I can meet her at the bus most days!