Release!

On Friday we released the 6 butterflies that we have been raising. They emerged from their chrysalises on Tuesday. If they stay in their cage for more than a few days the male butterflies will fight each other to the death. Ours were getting a little aggressive, so we released them on Friday. Thankfully the weather cleared up so they would fly (they need a clear day and at least 16 degrees to be released.) It was such an amazing experience. We hope to do this again next year!

 

Juliette was not at all shy about getting right in there. One of the cool things about raising butterflies is if they "imprint" on you they will form a bond and they will fly back to you after being released. Both Karis and Juliette had a butterfly imprint on them. Ella didn't love the idea of having a butterfly crawl on her, so she held hers by the stem of a flower.

In her element!

Peter was excited about the butterflies as well. He called them "flies." For the last few days they were in our house he enjoyed pulling a stool up to their cage and saying "hi flies."

Ella enjoying her butterfly from a distance :)

Above is a funny video that took place the day before we released the butterflies. The girls were feeding them their dinner and one of them escaped out of the cage and into our living room. Here is footage of Spencer catching it and putting it back into the cage.

And below is a video of the release. So much fun!

Waterslide and more...

The other day we arrived to swimming lessons early so that the girls could try the waterslide. It is a pretty big slide with a tunnel and the girls were sooo excited to both be tall enough to try it. They loved it and went as many times as they could before their lessons started.

Our kids love to set up chairs in our backyard and sit down. This lasts for a few minutes, then they move the chairs to another spot and sit again.

Juliette observing our caterpillars.

And we were all pretty excited that our caterpillars formed chrysalides this week. So, we transferred them to their butterfly cage. We expect to have six butterflies by around May 27th. 

Karis loves being part of our homeschool routine.

And Peter loves eating snacks. Especially "cakoos" aka crackers.

Peter loves his little brother.

He often asks if baby can have a snuggle with him in the pack n play. This needs to be done only under close observation. Peter has been known to try to sit on baby's lap.

And sometimes he needs to be reminded to be gentle with baby. He loves to point to baby's eyes and say "eyes". Unfortunately he puts his finger right in the eye while doing this.

We love you sweet Silas.

And this week we got a new dining room table! It is a farmhouse table with a bench on one side. We are getting chairs for it this week. It has been awesome to have more space at the table for schoolwork. And we are very excited to host many meals at our table.

Mother's Day and Share Fair

Happy Mother's Day to all of the moms in our lives. We love you!

We celebrated Mother's Day by going down to Stanley Park. We played at the park and had lunch at the Teahouse.

Our girls are so helpful with their baby brothers. They are getting so good at it that they can multitask while helping. Here's Juliette doing her coloring sheet while holding Silas.

Peter loved it at the Teahouse. He played with his truck, and observed the bikes, boats, and dogs going by outside. The pre-meal bread is always a hit with Peter as well :)

Today we had Share Fair at Community Class. This is a day for the kids to share with our community about what they have been learning about at home. Ella chose to do her project on Anne of Green Gables - her favorite books. She made a poster board about the books and served raspberry cordial.

"Ella's raspberry cordial. Everyone welcome."

And Juliette did her project on butterflies. We are currently studying butterflies at home. We have 6 caterpillars that we are observing. It is amazing how much they have grown in the past week. 

Juliette brought our caterpillars in and made a poster board with all kinds of interesting butterfly facts.

We are excited to have some butterflies in the next few weeks!

Peter enjoyed seeing all of the Share Fair projects - especially the ducklings!

We visited Fort Langley on a hot day and enjoyed some ice cream.

Ella stays up a little later than her siblings. During this time Spencer and Ella read together. They are currently reading through the Chronicles of Narnia series. I love to overhear their conversations as I do the dishes. These books bring up some great topics of conversation. It is also very precious to hear the connections that Ella makes between these books and what we read in the Bible.

And below are some random pictures of our past week: