Butterfly show with Mam

Rocket is off camping with the scouts this weekend, so that means Mam and I can go do "girly" things.  He has decided the butterfly show is for girls only.  So instead of going up to camp today to watch the Indy 500 qualifying with the scouts, I took mom to the show.  We had a great time.

Mom looks more and more like her dad in pictures.  She was ok for about 30 minutes and then her memory started going and she just wanted to sit and watch the butterflies.  She knew where we were, she was just done thinking for the time being.  I hate seeing her like this, but I love being with her.  I will suck it up and be present with her.  We are in this for the long haul.

This butterfly looks so cool, unfortunately it was dead. I found this out by trying to get it onto my card and it just fell to the ground.  Poor butterfly.

I like this yellow flower  I think it is an African daisy.  I am going to have to take the picture to the garden store and see if they can help me find it. 

The blue Morpho- you all know how I feel about this butterfly.  It is shame the butterfly never rests with it's wings open or flies slowly so I can get a picture of it open.

cute butterfly houses shaped like rain drops.  I want one.

 

I took mom to lunch afterward.  We had a great time together.

 

Rocket is back tomorrow and we start the last full week of school and the count down to our 10th family day.

 

Love and hugs,

Deb

Our backyard garden

The weather has finally turned back to spring/summer and that allowed Rocket and I to plant our vegetable garden over Mother's Day weekend

So the pictures are out of order again, but I will provide commentary

this morning it was so nice, I moved my office computer to the patio to enjoy the weather.  I was able to work out here for about 2 hours before the sun came to the point where the entire deck was in the sun and there was no shade for me.  I thought I would have to stay inside until around 2 pm, but I was just out on the patio getting something and it is in the shade again- at least the table is.  So I can go back outside from 11:30 am.  I am going to test this tomorrow.  One issue though, my back does not like the patio chairs for too long.  I had to get one of my outside pillows to put behind my back.

It was so peaceful out there today.  The birds were chatting, Pablo was resting and I could hear the cars on the main street about 2 blocks over.  I could also hear the gym (P.E. class) from the local elementary school too.

Last night was our PTO volunteer appreciation dinner.  this is me with my mentors and friends.  Our boys hang out together all the time.  They have played soccer, basketball and done scouts together since 1st grade.  I am so grateful to know these women and call them my friends.

Saturday night, our neighbors invited us over for s'mores in their backyard.  I like their fit pit.

the Parents from the PTO.  We had a swearing in ceremony for the new officers and the new trustees.  I wish the teacher reps had been called up too.  All the teachers in the school were invited to the dinner and about a 1/4 came to the dinner.  It was nice to see them out with us too.  We have 2-3 teacher reps and the principal on PTO.  I love our PTO.

Back to the garden.  These are the pots planted on Saturday.  the Left one has cucumbers and lettuce, the middle has potatoes, the right one has sugar snap peas and onions.

The garden beds, looking all awesome.  In the taller bed, there are 6 tomato plants.  2 are a heirloom variety .  We also have 2 yellow tomatoes (small pear shaped- like cherry tomatoes), and 2 roma tomato plants.  I am hoping we get enough to make pizza sauce/spaghetti sauce.  In the smaller bed, there are onions, radishes, carrots, squash and zucchini.   Hopefully we will have a bountiful harvest this year.

Rocket and me on Saturday evening.  We were celebrating Falco's birthday from afar.

Thursday night was the band concert.  these guys are all in scouts together and they play in the junior band.  The one in front is the only one who does not play percussion.

During the concert- they played one song.  Some of the jazz band came over and helped out with additional instruments during the song.  the kids did a great job.  When the high school band played, they ended the concert with a song that one of the band members had composed and published- he is only 17 years old and is a published composer!!!  Rocket played the cymbals on the song they did for the concert.

Pablo chilling with a treat in my office.  he is laying on Rocket's beanbag chair.  the dog is so spoiled.

the boys talking before the band concert.  you can see the high school band up on the stage.

the backyard last week during the colder weather- I actually had to turn the heat back on since the house was cold and outside it was colder and very damp.  It does look cool though.

looking more northeast - this is about 8 feet off the ground as I was trying to cut out all the yard stuff.

Me and Rocket at the movies seeing Guardians of the Galaxy 2

and Black Panther made an appearance that night.  He figured out how to hide his eyes by using his sun glasses.

Love and hugs,

Deb

Zoo buddies and friends

The pictures are in reverse order of events, but it is all good.  Yesterday, we had a friend over.  Both the boys are in scouts together and they had to work a car wash to raise money for their summer trip.  After working 4 hours and then playing and then eating dinner, I took them both out for ice cream.  I think they enjoyed it.

The adult leaders at the car wash.  I will be working at the next one- in late May.

I was the first car to be washed AKA the training car.  They did a good job, though both Rocket and E remarked when I came to pick them up at the end, that my car was dirty again.  God love them- I did not have the heart to look at them and tell them that the car was dirty from where they all missed spots when they washed my car.

Rocket trying out the driver's seat.  he is tall enough to driver, though we still have 4 years before he can drive.

One of the cool things about Sunday was that Rocket had a lot of homework to do.  He did not do it on Saturday, and I thought for sure it would be a struggle on Sunday to get him to do it before we picked up his friend.  NOPE, he sat down as soon as I told him he had to do it and finished it all without complaining. So impressed with him. 

Saturday night we had a concert.  It was late for us- the concert started at 8 pm and we are usually finishing up our day.  We had a good time, the music was great, the singers were fantastic.  I think Rocket really liked this concert.

it was Disney.  there were some songs we had not heard for long time, but most we knew.  Rocket only complained at the end when they played the songs from Frozen.  But the encore was "the circle of life" from Lion King and Rocket loves that song.

Saturday afternoon we went to a concert that J was in.  J is one of the exchange students and I am his liaison, which means I have to talk to him or see him once a month.  He was playing at a nursing home near by.  He is the trumpeter in the middle back of this picture.  The band is made up of students from J's school and members of the community.  Pretty cool to have all age groups in this one band.  They played a lot of older (20-30s) songs for the residents of the nursing home. 

Last Wednesday, I went with Rocket and his class and their 1st grade buddies to the zoo.  If you recall, I did this same trip in 2012 (April 27), when Rocket was a 1st grader.  I have linked that blog post in case you want to compare how Rocket looks now to how he looked then.

One big difference, the 6th graders this year stayed with their buddies the entire time and actually interacted with them.  The zoo was packed with school groups. We walked for 2.5 hours and I was worn out when we got home.

some of the girls we kept running into (they are in Rocket's class).  We had to separate from them because they were a complete distraction for a couple of the boys in the group. 

Lot so OLG kids monkeying around

Our group- Rocket's buddy is in front of him in the black shirt.

That is it for last week.  Have a great day.

Love and hugs,

Deb