Soccer, soccer and more soccer!
Emily's soccer season officially started and because they have a larger JV team this year she doesn't see as much playing time as she would like. Despite this drawback she is doing excellent and her father and I applaud her effort and perseverance!
David started playing soccer (his first time) and if anyone has watched 5 year olds playing soccer it is basically watching a herd of children chase a soccer ball around with only one or two of them actually having a clue as to what to do with the ball! It's amusing to say the least and frustrating at times too. David seems to pay more attention to seeing if we're watching him than to what it happening on the field.
This clip is from his first soccer game. I should tell you that his team named themselves the "Purple People Leaders". David is #5. I can be heard in the video as Jason was the one filming it. The end of the video is "typical" David on the soccer field.
Learning to ride a bike!
I had a few goals at the beginning of this summer but one that I was really determined to accomplish was having Ella learn to ride a bike (without training wheels). I'm sure many of you wonder why at age 8 she has never learned to ride a bike but my excuse has always been that we do not have sidewalks in our neighborhood. Truthfully, looking back this was a pretty lame answer but we have now rectified the situation.
Toward the middle of August, Jason and I took Ella to our neighbor's driveway (which is long, smooth, and being used with their permission). We spent the better part of a hour taking turns running up and down the driveway holding onto the back of the bike listening to Ella's frightened noises. I tell you what, it was only three sessions later that she was riding on her own with no fear and two times later she was starting herself out with a "push and hop" up onto her bike.
David was ever present at Ella's bike lessons and taught Ella how to concentrate on what she was doing despite the distractions!
Bullfrogs and Butterflies
OK, so there are no bullfrogs in this next bit but there is plenty about butterflies, Monarch butterflies to be specific. I shared last time that we were starting to get a lot of Monarch butterfly caterpillars on our milkweed plant and we decided to "study" them up close.
We took one of the biggest (about 2 inches long and as fat as a pencil) that we could find and put him in a bug catcher along with a stick and plenty of milkweed to eat. That very night he climbed up top and overnight turned himself in to a chrysalis! I was amazed that it happened that fast and thought that since we had such luck with this one that maybe we could watch two! We quickly moved our one chrysalis from the small bug catcher into a large pretzel container and moved in our new caterpillar! He took over a day to decide to metamorphosize and so I was able to get photos of him just before he made his first transformation.
Our first chrysalis
Our first caterpillar's "skin" that he shed when turning into a chrysalis.
Our second caterpillar after attaching himself to the lid with his "silk button" and getting into the "J" position to form his chrysalis.
Another shot of our second caterpillar with the first chrysalis in the background.
An itty bitty caterpillar that came in on some milkweed, see him? He's just to the left of the dime!
It was about 10 days later before we noticed any changes. It was on a Friday morning that I noticed that our first chrysalis was clear and you could see the tell tale orange and black stripes of the newly formed Monarch butterfly! I was excited and upset at the same time. Excited because our caterpillar would be hatching soon but upset because I had to go to work that day and in all likelihood would miss the main event! I was right, I missed it, but I put Emily on butterfly watching duty and here are the results of that day. By the way, that's Emily narrating the video, not me!
VIDEO!
As soon as I got home we let him out of the pretzel barrel but he really didn't seem like he was in that much of a hurry to leave. He flitted onto David's leg and then onto the ground and just sat there. I decided to move him to a safer place and put him on a coneflower and took advantage of the photo opportunity!
Labor Day!
It seems like so long ago but we spent the weekend of Labor day camping at our land (surprise!) Again, that sarcasm, I just can't escape it! We were unable to make it down to the land as much as we wanted to this summer which is a shame because the weather this summer was just so perfect! We didn't do anything extraordinary but Jason did drive back to the city to enjoy the fireworks and then came back down in time to load up in the pouring rain. Needless to say I drove home while he slept (this is a role reversal)!
First Days of School!
Believe it or not all of the previous events happened before school even started. Our district started later this year due to construction and we enjoyed the extra little summer break! Emily is now in high school (unbelievable, I know). Ella entered third grade and David started kindergarten! Here are their first day of school photos!
David's first bus ride to school!
Bullfrogs and Butterflies Revisited!
I'm sure you thought I forgot all about our second chrysalis waiting to hatch, but I didn't! He waited until the kids were in school to hatch. I was excited because the morning I noticed his chrysalis was clear I was home for the day and was sure I'd get to see him hatch! WRONG!!! The bugger (pun intended) hatched in less than 15 min! I went into the bathroom to clean and when I had come back he was already out with his wings unfolded! UGH! I snapped some photos of him and waited till the kids came home from school to show them and to let him go outside. I was expecting this one also to be slow to fly but he crawled right onto my finger and then onto David's finger and before I could get my camera ready he had already flown off! My guess is that butterfly personalities (if they have them) are just as variant as people's! Here are the second butterfly's photos!
News on our adoption
There is little to tell at this point. We did get our home study done and got word today that it was officially approved. We are waiting for our copy of this document (the last one) so that we can send it all in together with a bunch of other official paperwork that I spent the summer getting accumulated. Once this is done we have to apply with the immigration services (US CIS), be fingerprinted, and wait for all our paperwork to be processed and then sent over to Ethiopia to be translated and make it's way through the process over there. It will be a few months until we hear anything but in the meantime we are still praying for our newest family member. We ask that you pray along with us that even at this time God would be with them and their birthfamily and preparing all our hearts for this big transition.
Until next time, enjoy my favorite time of year. Breathe in the wood smoke from campfires, listen to the geese flying south, and view the changing leaves and remember who is in control of it all... our heavenly Father!
No comments:
Post a Comment