All Things Bright and Beautiful

We had caterpillars. They grew. They changed. We learned. We loved. We even named them (and by “We", I mean Kate).

(Named in order of rebirth): Fota, Pola, Tenna, Forda, and Soka

Today we had to say good-bye (especially since Fota was already in a “deep sleep”).

The Commencement Ceremony wasn’t quite as beautiful as I had imagined it. There wasn’t a whole lot of happy fluttering going on. Instead, they held onto that net as tightly as they could…what with the balmy, 38 degree weather and all.

I kind of felt like the mother bird nudging them out of the nest, and truthfully, I felt bad they weren’t headed for rainbows and sunshine (especially not Fota). But before you judge, please know that these butterflies had already outlived the average Painted Lady Butterfly lifespan of 2 weeks. And, unlike other butterflies, they created many smiles, gasps, and conversations for one little girl (and her parents), which most butterflies never get the chance to do. To summarize, we feel very privileged to have peeked in on all 5 of their short, miraculous lives.

Happy Balentimes!

Yesterday was Valentine’s Day (and, incidentally, today is mine and Dave’s 9th wedding anniversary)!  I know, we are just all about LOVE at the Blackhurst home!  Anyway, for the big day, we set up a heart hunt leading to Kate and Cole’s Valentine surprises.  

What?!!! The ‘Never Say Never’ JB CD, pretend makeup AND hair accessories?!! We might have a new favorite holiday around here, folks.

When leaving for preschool this morning (after an early morning Insanity workout with the Mom and Dad), Kate chirped, “I love Balentime’s Day!  Is it still Balentime’s Day today?”

Sadly, it’s not. But it certainly is nice to have a day (or two) each year to remind us of how lucky we are to have so much to love…

Something borrowed. Something blue.

Do you ever just go through your camera to recall what actually goes on? That’s what we’ve done today.

Kate’s big into the world of dress-ups. She got a new wedding bouquet and veil and we held a ceremony with the lucky groom, Justin Bieber Doll. “Just pretend like he’s Big Justin Beaver. Okay, Mom?” Got it, Kate.

After seeing a skit of the Bieb's on SNL this week, Kate told me, "He smiled at me, Mom." This girl is smitten.

Coleman is getting better at sitting upright, but still can’t quite figure out how to suck his thumb, though he tries all day long.

He is a cuddle bear. And he’s so proud of himself when he does big boy tasks like this:And the sweet sibling love continues…

Also, we got a new car this weekend. Of course, ours came without the sunset background.

Kate wanted pink. But after a few days, she’s now come around and thanks us for buying ‘her’ a car.

Car buying is the opposite of awesome. We shopped long and hard. It was exhausting. We’d never really tried negotiating prices until this car purchase. In doing so, I learned something new about myself: I can be a real ogress. I was so mean tough. My poor husband had no choice but to play good cop. In the end, we got some pretty substantial savings I think. And, what do you know, it’s kind of fun driving my mom car.

Kate got dance pics back from her last recital:

Kate and her best cousin:

In short, I think my kids are neato. I might need a bumper sticker to outwardly voice that. Or maybe just a blog post on the world wide web will suffice.

The Best Part of Waking Up...

My darling husband sometimes has sleepless nights. Whenever this occurs, QVC or some other fine infomercial establishment receives a phone call in the wee hours of the morning. Within days, an extra special delivery shows up at our door, and I'm always afraid. Very. The Insanity DVD's just so happens to be the latest doorstep find.

For 2 1/2 weeks now Dave and I have been waking up early and working out to this together. My body hurts...all the time. I'm getting tired of looking at the machine, Tanya. I hate doing "high knees." And if Shaun T. tells me to "dig deeper" anymore, I might puke. But we're sticking to it. Apparently 60 days is all it takes to transform this body of mine (we'll see about that).

But aside from all the pain, there's something more to be gained. Between work and kids, Dave and I don't get as much quality time together these days. But doing the workouts, we laugh till it hurts. Even the thought of the two of us jumping around in front of our bedroom T.V. makes me laugh. It's actually pretty fun having him as a workout buddy.

So watch out, friends, two new "insanely" firm bodies are on the way.