Emma at 6 months

Emma turned 6 months old on July 10th. Just a few days before, she got her first tooth.

She is a very active little girl, always playing and trying to see what is going on.

She is a very happy baby. She loves to smile and laugh. She recently started making the most expressive noises, all squeaks and giggles. It's really almost like talking, the way she changes her voice.

Often, she'll play herself right to sleep.

We started feeding her rice cereal this week and she wasn't too sure about it.

But, as always, she was ready to smile and laugh if given an excuse.



Olivia's Summer Art Camps

We enrolled Olivia in two summer art camps at the Cultural Arts Center in downtown Greensboro. The morning session was a Dr. Seuss-themed camp that had them look at some of his books and take inspiration from the stories to do their own works.

Her turtle, inspired by Yurtle the Turtle

She had to write her own poem and illustrate it in book form.

She made her own "Thing" from Cat In The  Hat

In the afternoon, she had a camp that did a lot of work inspired by other artists and used a bunch of mixed-media.

Olivia made a "Triorama" of her dream playground

Starry Night by Van Gogh

They made their own sketchbooks

splatter painting like Jackson Pollack

They made their own paint and did some finger painting

"Oh wait! It's upside down!"

More splatter painting

Masks

Cave art

They did a group project where one person drew a head, one a torso and the third legs, but they couldn't look at the previous person's work

They made shakers with beans and a toilet paper tubee

The looked at Henna tattoos and did their own on a glove (because drawing on our own hands might not be a good idea...:)

They made woven paper lanterns

Boys Being Boys

Gabe and Ezra are usually getting along and playing well together. A few weeks ago, I had some pea gravel delivered and made an area out back for them to dig in all they want. It can keep them occupied for hours sometimes.

They also enjoy doing schoolwork together, learning how to sort items and use simple tools.

Ezra has quite an active imagination and likes to pretend to cook.

Wearing a crown he and Gabe made

He begged to get in Olivia's bed and get under the covers like she does.

From Caterpillars to Butterflies

Olivia and her homeschool co-op visited the All-A-Flutter Butterfly Farm about a month ago and brought home a "butterfly castle", which is a potted milkweed plant with 2 Monarch Butterfly eggs.

We checked it daily, watered the plant and waited for a sign that at least one of them had hatched. Finally, after a week, we were rewarded with this:

Not one, but both of them hatched within a day of each other. Olivia promptly named them "Jane" and "Millie"

 They grew quickly, going from tiny caterpillars to large, fat ones over the course of the next 12 days. 

Then, on day 19, Jane (don't ask me how she could tell them apart)  curled up and hung motionless for a few hours 

When we looked the next morning, she was shedding her skin.

Before this, I always thought they wove a cocoon around themselves

But as we watched, it became clear that she had already changed inside and would become the chrysalis itself.

Another 12 days later, we came downstairs and found her already out of the chrysalis, drying her wings.

We carried the plant outside and took off the net.

Almost immediately, she fluttered down to the concrete. That's when we noticed that "Jane" was actually a boy.
Olivia promptly renamed him Benny.

I guess Benny wasn't used to his new wings yet because he wouldn't really attempt to fly and was willing to climb onto our hands without the slightest hesitation.

After a couple more minutes of prompting, Benny took flight. He didn't go far, though, before he landed in the grass and struggled to get upright. I picked him back up and looked for a place to put him. 

In the meantime, Ezra went back and forth about whether he wanted to hold Benny, but he finally did.

We finally placed Benny on top of a tall, wooden stake in the yard and he sat there for a good hour while the kids ate lunch. At some point, I looked out the window and he was gone. Now we wait for Millie...