Happy Saturday! I finally pulled all my recent photos together for a five favorites post. It’s been a busy couple of weeks (partly because everyone in the house caught my cold), but we’ve had a lot of fun moments, too.

ONE. We’ve had a lot of visitors lately… of the insect variety! Kaya called me outside to “come see something!” one afternoon, and I was surprised and excited to see this beautiful butterfly on our deck. After a little research, we discovered this is a male Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly. Aren’t his stripes cool?
We caught him so we could observe him up close for a bit. Kaya named him “Cutie”, and she was probably the happiest girl in the world. She just loves all creatures.I love that they love nature so much! We released him and watched him fly into the trees behind our house. The girls keep telling me they want to go on a walk to see if they can find him again.We also found a little caterpillar! I couldn’t figure out what kind this one was, but Kaya named it “Caterpillary” (after the very first caterpillar she had) and took care of it for a day.A few days later, another butterfly visited our deck! This one appeared to be a Red Spotted Purple butterfly.TWO. We’ve enjoyed the time we’ve had outdoors, especially with all the recent thunderstorms. We stopped to admire some beautiful purple flowers on our walk……played with pinwheels in the wind!…colored with donut-shaped chalk……and tried to eat the chalk, too.

THREE. Drawing on the whiteboard will never get old! I love when the girls make pictures “for me” and only let me look once they are completely finished. Kaelyn drew herself and me, “because we are buddies!”Kaya made our whole family! That’s Michael holding the new baby!FOUR. Kaya and Kaelyn got to go on a little date with Daddy to make these cars at the Home Depot kids’ workshop! It’s been awhile since they’ve done one of these activities, and they loved it.Daddy said Kaelyn was a “hammering machine”…In action!When they came home, they painted their cars. They’ve been racing them all around and having a good time!FIVE. I know I’ve posted pictures of Nella in this Dalmatian puppy costume before… but she wears it semi-regularly, and somehow it seems to magnify her adorableness. I love her happy smile so much!Happy weekend!