More from the Butterfly Pavilion

Sarah got to check out of school early and we arrived just as the school tours were ending so it wasn't over crowded.Butterflies ~ the pupa stage?
This large room was full of bugs....spiders....a honey bee hive....creepy crawlies
Jennifer's "grown up" reaction to some of them was "EWWWW"
Posing beside the tarantula tanks
you could stand in line to hold a live tarantula
(we didn't)
If we sit REAL still maybe a butterfly will land on our finger??

(and it will give a tired Magra a chance to rest a sec)
They were beautiful
but not as beautiful as this group
Tried to be "artistic" and pose the girls with the landscaping

Sarah's flashed her dimples

and Claire ~ not sure if she was posing

or trying NOT to fall off the rock

Sarah, Claire, and Jennifer as pupa

One last activity

My birthday in Colorado

One of the "events" during my visit to Colorado was my birthday celebration. I know it was in April but they waited for me and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Jennifer and Claire made the cupcakes. I got to pick the color....white cupcakes with white icing ~ they jazzed them up with butterflies.

Balloons, presents, and cupcakes, OH MY!

Jennifer piped the butterflies onto waxed paper and Claire helped with the colored sugar and jellybean bodies.
My job was to watch
They sang
I got this cool purse
and some snuggly pjs
Sarah enjoyed her soft tacos pre-cupcake Claire is READY for her cupcake
This is how we see Arie most of the time
At the end of the day it was all about ME!

Thanks for the birthday party!!!!

Egyptian Celebration

What to do on a Friday in Windsor, Colorado?? I got up and took Sarah to school....there was a suspicious light on the dashboard....hmmmmmm ~ low tire pressure. When I returned, I checked the tires and put air in all of them (just to be on the safe side) the light went off ~ hooray!! After showers and such we were off to open gym for Claire.

The girl knows how to pose

(even if I don't know how to snap a photo in focus)

She likes the parallel bars.
(check the tension in the toes)
Jennifer joined her in one of the pits Just hangin' aroundThey "thought" they could hide!!!!
Whew! after all that activity
a nap was in order!

Then we were off to the Egyptian Celebration at Sarah's school !! They learned about Pharaohs, mummies, scarabs, etc. All of the children were wearing togas (bed sheets held together by safety pins) and were adorned with jewels they worked on in class.

Pharaoh Sarah in all her glory!! The whole class (that's me on the far right) Jennifer and I took turns with the
palm frond used to cool the royalty
(we were mere slaves) The children made flails played Egyptian tug of war and wrapped cat mummies

There was also a food station where they could dine on gold plates and drink out of gold cups while enjoying grapes, dates, bread, and beef while being fanned by the afore pictured slaves. Also at the food station was a "make-up artist"?.... you be the judge

One of the "servants" applied eyeliner to the Pharaohs and.... what do you call girl Pharaohs?? I'm hoping Cleopatra's makeup did not run like Claire's!

P.S. The next day my warning light came on again so Arie checked it and Jennifer and I went to the tire shop and had it fixed....there was a piece of metal in it.... they didn't charge me anything!!!! Arie and Buck thought it would be around $15.00 Maybe they felt sorry for me or maybe it was Jennifer's Southern Belle charm??

A visit to the library

For the next few posts I will be talking about my trip to Colorado. The girls are avid readers and we usually make a trip to the library when I am there. This trip was no exception. Jennifer has a bag that will hold 20 or 30 books. I'm sure they are looking forward to the summer program, it's always fun. How about this cool tree

right in the middle of the library?
Claire enjoyed sitting under it
while Jennifer and Sarah searched
for books.
Jennifer even picked up a
couple for herself!
They also have a free magazine
exchange ~ bring one/pick up one.
Sarah picked up three "Treehouse"
books and proceeded to the reading
chairs located beside the fireplace.
Claire enjoys the puzzle center.
There is a nice reading area in the children's
section of the library.
These photos were taken with my phone. Next up? I will weed through the plethora of photos from my camera and Jennifer's cameras....this may take a while, but I WILL be back.

The Butterfly Pavilion

Jennifer volunteers at Sarah's school on Thursdays. Yesterday after lunch we checked her out of school and traveled to Denver to the Butterfly Pavilion. It was a great trip and a fun place to go on a rainy day.

We saw butterflies of all shapes, colors, and sizes.
The girls and I tried to entice one to land on our finger
but none of them were interested.

Claire and Sarah got to act like
spiders on this HUGE spider web.

What better way to end an outing
than with a stop at Starbucks
for hot chocolate?
Yum!

Friday in Colorado

My drive to Colorado was uneventful. I drank lots of water and ate half a bag of pretzels. I arrived at Jennifer's office around 2:30. She presented me with a lovely Mother's Day arrangement of mums. Since she was working, I came along to the house and unloaded the car and rested a bit. After school time, I went to Renee's house to pick up the girls. I was SOOOO happy to see them and they seemed just as happy to see me. We came back to the house and played outside until Jennifer came home. While she was making dinner, Arie came home. Hugs all around for everyone.

Friday we were up and ready for school. I got to deliver Sarah to Windsor Charter Academy. When I started the car there was a little light on that should not have been on....uh oh!! When Claire and I got back to the house I checked the tire pressure and thankfully Arie has an air compressor in the garage and I adjusted the pressure in all the tires and now it's all good!

At 8:45 we were back at school for the Mojo Reading Awards.
This was based on number of books read in the month of April.The first graders sat quietly
waiting for their name to be called.

Sarah got prizes for reading 46 books
during the month of April

Jennifer checking out the prizes
and congratulating Sarah and her friends.

After the school activities, we came back to the house, had a snack, baked some cupcakes, and got ready for open gym. Claire goes to open gym on Fridays. Jennifer thinks she will be ready for gymnastic classes in the fall. We bounced on the trampoline, did front rolls, hung on the parallel bars, jumped in "the pit", swung on the rope, and rolled around the mat with a giant ball.

Claire showed her bravery on the balance beam.

We stopped at Subway for lunch and came home for a quick rest time before going back to school for an Egyptian Celebration in Sarah's class. (photos later)

The cupcakes were for me!! Jennifer and Claire made some delicate butterflies to put on top of them. I had a yummy taco dinner, beautiful butterfly cupcakes, presents, singing and a good evening with the family. (photos later)

Traveling....

Tomorrow I will set out on a journey to Windsor, Colorado. I would like to tell you that I'm all packed and ready to go ~ but I'm not. There's one more load of laundry to do before I can be ALL PACKED. I would like to tell you that I plan to drive straight through ~ but that won't happen. I will stop and sleep for a bit then continue on to Jennifer and Arie's (and Sarah and Claire) on Thursday. I plan to stay until the 15th so there may not be any blogging until I return.

Hugs and kisses