Caitlin and the Butterfly, Spongebob Cake

Last Sunday was Caitlin's birthday. That is her Spongebob cake, that I did not make. I wanted to make her cake, and she said no she wanted the bakery to do it. I was a little disappointed but it was really hot, so my heart was not completely broken. I will make my own Spongebob cake yet, maybe for my birthday LOL.

Caitlin loves butterflies, and apparently they are fond of her too. She caught this cute little butterfly, and it promptly sat on her forehead. It stayed there until she took it down, just lightly fluttering its wings. I tried to get a picture with its wings open, it looks like a monarch on the inside, but is obviously black not white. We must have a flower it likes, because it keeps coming back every day. Don't worry all that dirt on the floor is the outside porch, not the inside of my house. I say that and I was like gross. My dogs drag in more dirt. I vacuum it up and dump it back in the sand pit, otherwise we would have none left.

Learning About Your Local Community, Playgroup Date

Tomorrow is our second playgroup date, and it is Earth Day, and learn about your community in Social Studies. So if you go here you can learn about one of our local community attractions, Hart Springs. Florida is famous for its natural warm water springs. Here we have three, that are close to where we live. Hart Springs, Manatee Springs, and Fanning Springs. Crystal River, in Homasassa Springs, is about 1 hr from us, and that is where we have seen the manatees in their natural habitat. We visit our local library every two weeks. My kids love to take out books, and they are somewhat of celebrities there. Tomorrow we will be meeting our small playgroup there, for a book exchange. This is our second meeting, and everyone seems to get along well. If anyone that visits my blog lives in the Gilchrist county area, we are still accepting members. So far two of us moms homeschool, the other does not, though she is considering it for her youngest child.

As part of Earth day tomorrow, we will be planting a rose bush, that my husband bought, in rather sad shape, and we have nursed it back to health. It is sprouting new leaves, no buds yet, but soon I hope. This is my fourth rose bush, and they are doing amazingly well. My kids love nature, and especially bugs. Lord knows there are plenty of them here. It seems like every year, they find a bug they did not see last year. Like the very funny looking black grasshopper they found under their slide the other day. What they were doing under there I have no idea. I thought it must be a cricket, because I have never seen a black grasshopper before. So of course I googled black cricket with red stripe, to no avail. When I googled black grasshopper, this lovely creature came up. It seems my kids happened to be rummaging around under the slide at just the right time, because these were very small, young grasshoppers just being born. They climb up out of the dirt from where they were laid, in the fall. They did capture some, and have made them a home, in a jar with food, water, and air. I do not know how long they will live for, but they are excited. My daughter takes them out, and plays with them like they are toys. They are supposedly a pest, but my kids would beg to differ that. If you would like to learn about this very interesting bug you can go here

Lesson Plans for 4/22/09:

Social Studies: Local community
Writing: Write a story about your community
Math: graphs, multiplication, division
Spelling: Lesson 28- write each spelling word and circle the vowels
Vocabulary: Lesson 28- use each vocabulary word in a sentence
Language Arts: Action verbs, visual sequencing

Some Of The Critters You Can Find In Our Yard

Anyone, who has ever lived in Florida, or any tropical climate, knows the critters can be large and many. These are just some of the criiters we have photographed living in our yard. There is the really large frog, that was sitting right on my front door. Then the lizard, that is at least 4 inches long, which yes to me is large. He must be the big daddy, because I have not seen any larger than him. We have lots of these little lizards running around our yard. Did you see that huge grasshopper. That thing is at least 6-7 inches long, and was just hanging out on the back porch screen, like he owned the place. We have a pair of these, a male and female, and they have the prettiest pink wings. Then there is my crazy dog, Krypto, who thinks the yard is his domain, Ha I think all these critters would beg to differ. He barks and chases them, but they return. The last picture is of my front yard, after a heavy afternoon thunderstorm. It was taken from my front porch, and we are quite a ways back from the road. Welcome to summertime in Florida. I tried to get a picture of the snake, but he hasnt returned thank goodness, and the very large spiders that I scare away as much as possible. I honestly cant believe, how big the spiders are here. Where do you live? What kind of critters can you find in your yard?