More Mantises

I think our hungry praying mantis decided to hang out in our front bed for a couple days and feast on grasshoppers. Ron found him in the roses when he was trimming on Saturday and moved him to the lilac bush. I was able to relocate him yesterday and again today.

Danielle wants to enter the parks' photo contest again, so she was working on her photo entry. I gave her a little guidance and let her use my camera. Her picture turned out pretty good. These pictures are mine.

When I went out with my camera after dinner tonight, though, I couldn't find him. He may be hiding, or he may have moved. Or, this one may have eaten him. We found this one in another bush. I suspect it is a female, but I'm not 100% positive. Several people have mentioned seeing them lately, so I looked up some info about them. I guess this is their mating season, so they are more active than usual. I think they are kind of neat. They are very alert, and it's kind of cool how they track you with their creepy compound eyes.

Critters & Creepy Crawlies

Tyler's friend's family has a resident groundhog dwelling under some rocks in their backyard. She wanted a picture of him, so I took one when I picked Tyler up from his house last weekend.

I've had a few painted lady butterflies visit my butterfly bushes lately. I was able to get a close up of this one yesterday. They are so fuzzy.

Tonight Tyler spotted this praying mantis enjoying a grasshopper. He didn't like us watching him and eventually dropped the still wiggling - though headless - bug.

He was actually hanging upside down like this, but it's easier to see the details on the other pictures.

School Pictures

Danielle got her school pictures back today. She is growing into such a beautiful young lady, inside and out.

The Birthday Boy

Happy birthday to Tyler! Can you believe he's 12?!

Wasn't he just that happy little baby toddling around and discovering the world?!

He started his birthday celebration on Thursday with a trip out with Mamaw. We went to Mellow Mushroom where Mamaw allowed him to overindulge.

We had a very nice time. One of Tyler's gifts from Mamaw & Papaw was this shirt, which he loved & wore to school the next day. I think there should be rules about going to school before the sun rises!

On Friday he took in cupcakes to share with his class. This will probably be the last year he gets to take in a birthday treat. :'( I made creeper cupcakes. In case you don't know, a creeper is a character in the popular video game Minecraft. I don't get the attraction, but Tyler enjoys it and he thought most of his classmates would enjoy the Minecraft themed cupcakes. It was quite labor intensive, but he was pleased with how they turned out. I guess they tasted good, too, although I never got to try one.

Friday evening Grandma & Grandpa & Uncle Ron came over to celebrate. Grandma brought him a Minecraft themed cake, too. Tyler said the drawing was a little off, but he thought it was still pretty cool. We had a nice evening visiting together and celebrating 12 years of Tyler.

Today Tyler had his friend over to play video games. Unfortunately the game's server was offline the entire time he was here so things didn't go quite as they had planned, but they still had a nice time together. There has only been one other time that Tyler has asked to have someone over for his birthday, so this was actually pretty special.

Tonight we went out for dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant where Tyler got to wear the "lice hat" as we so lovingly call it. We go there often enough that they know us and one waiter always enjoys talking to Tyler. He had fun leading the singing and plopping the hat on Tyler's head. It was a fun dinner. Afterward we came home for presents and cake.

Opening his gift from Danielle this morning.

He was totally surprised by his gift - an iPod Touch.

 

I had big plans for Tyler's birthday cake this year but fizzled out after those tedious cupcakes. Instead I quickly cut the edges off a round layer cake and made another creeper face. Based on all the baked goods represented here, it may seem as though Tyler is addicted to this game. He does like to play it a lot, but he didn't ask for this to be his "theme". It is just so difficult to find anything he really likes, so when we do, we tend to cling to it with gusto!

Ron is taking the day off work next Friday so he and Tyler can visit the Airforce Museum as part of his birthday celebration, too. We just couldn't fit it in this week. He said this was his best birthday ever, which makes all the effort worth it. Tyler is such a special kid. ("Kid" doesn't really seem to fit so much any more.) I'm glad we could take a day to make him feel special.

More Garden Visitors

I was sitting outside for a few minutes one afternoon in that short break I get between getting off work and picking Tyler up from school, when this guy caught my eye. The sun hit him just right and his wings just sparkled. I think it's some type of fly.

I bought a different kind of milkweed this year and the milkweed bugs LOVE it. This type of milkweed doesn't seem to attract aphids like the other kind did, but the milkweed bugs are out of control. I don't think I'll plant this kind again. Here is a milkweed bug molting from its nymph stage.

 

 

This grasshopper didn't escape the hose when I watered my flowers the other day.

I was sitting outside again this afternoon when this carpenter bee caught my eye. I have taken pictures of lots of bees, but their eyes are always black, even in the bright sun. I don't know what's going on with this guy's eyes, but I thought he was pretty cool.

This and That

Yep, I'm still alive. We've been busy getting readjusted to life during school. The kids and I were sick for a couple days, thankfully not all at the same time. I've been working a little extra while my boss, who is still battling cancer, tries to find a schedule her body can handle. Ron is adjusting nicely to his new home office. In fact, he designed (from scratch!) and built Megadesk.

Danielle's travel softball team has started fundraising. Although they won't play games until spring, they have costs for things now, such as rental of the indoor training facility, so we are all starting to make payments. Her first fundraiser is a sub sale. I abhor fundraisers and honestly would rather just write the check than suffer through them, so it is quite ironic that I ended up being in charge of fundraising!! I did a lot of research and think I've got prices as low as I can possibly get them. In fact, the profits per sub are a little over $3.25, which I think is pretty good. With little effort, she's already earned a good amount for her account. I think the "fun" part of this fundraiser will be assembling the subs. Should be messy and chaotic. She didn't want me to photodocument her fundraising attempts.

The other day Danielle and I saw a monarch in our flowers and got very excited. I've only seen 3 monarchs all summer, and this was the only one I'd seen actually land on something. I've seen reports from other places that have said the monarch counts are very low this year. That's sad. We haven't had any eggs or caterpillars at all this summer. I didn't see any eggs on my milkweed, but hopefully I just overlooked them.

Every summer Danielle and I talk about hand feeding a hummingbird. We usually put a little effort into it and then we give up. We haven't worked on it much this summer, but it seems that we have at least one little guy (gal) that might actually be willing. I took this with my cell phone tonight (not a zoom lens). I really was that close. I wish the phone's video quality was better. We only have a couple weeks left before they begin their migration south, so we'll have to get busy. :)