Happy Birthday, T & Z!

Last Sunday, after nap, we joined my family for dinner at my parents house to celebrate both my brother's birthdays. Taylor turned 24 on September 15th and Zach turned 22 on September 27th.

It's always fun to play with Mya & Stella!

Or to keep Papa company while he grills steaks for our dinner.

Goofy kids.

My Sibs: Taylor (24), me (30), Zach (22) and Casey (28).

Love them!

"The boys" were like my babies when they were born. I was definitely a little mother and I used to pretend they were mine. It's strange to think how grown we all are now!
Sort of...

Grandma & Grandpa joined us for a little while. Always love seeing them... which is never enough.

Happy Birthday, T & Z! We love you!!!

Walkin' the Walk

We've got the uniform and Will's ready to do this thing for reals now! ;-)

Gi's are so flippin' cute on little kids. And Will's sure doing his best to look tough in his. Haha!

Tying the belt.

Daddy took karate for awhile when he was young, too, and prides himself in his belt tying skills.

"William-son"

Practicing his punching with daddy.

This one's kind of blurry, but he just looks so happy, I had to share.

Craig took Will to class last Monday and Cora was there this week! From what I heard, they were a little too chatty and close in contact throughout the class, but Will had a blast.

Also, he's really putting his new language skills to use! Later in the week, we caught him doing repeated somersaults from one room to the next, prefacing each roll with "Hajime!"... which just means "go" or "begin" in Japanese. And one recent school morning, I had to wake him up, which is unusual. I whispered in his ear that I had made him some pancakes for breakfast, and he sleepily told me "Domo Arigato"... thank you in Japanese! ;-)

Monarch Release & Corn Maze

Last Sunday, the kids and I made our way to Whitehouse, Ohio to visit the Butterfly House for their annual Monarch Release. The event had been on our calendar last year but we were unable to make it because of a funeral. So I was really looking forward to it this year!

This was our first visit to the Butterfly House this season (they opened May 1st), but we actually didn't even go inside. There's plenty to do outside this time of year and the Monarch Release was a free event outdoors on their beautiful grounds. (We did pay to do the corn maze though.)

First, their was a mini straw bale "maze". Most of the bigger kids were just walking on top of it, though, and jumping from bale to bale.

They have lots of beautiful flowers all around, but of course the tall sunflowers are the most enchanting in the fall.

The next point of interest was a "slide" of sorts that they'd created with a large pipe laying on a downhill slant.

And then, shortly before the Release began, we took a quick jaunt through the shortest corn maze they offered. Will lead us out to the start, following a woman dressed as a butterfly who was admitting guests to the maze. She also held a sign that read "Mexico or bust!" (Referring to the migration, or course.) LOL

Into the maze we ventured!

Our ring leader.

Racing.

I love this one. :)

Haha - you can tell who took this one based on the upward angle. ;-)

We could hear the announcement over the speaker system they had set up that the festivities were about to begin, so we rushed out of the maze and up the hill to catch up with the crowd. Duke Wheeler - owner and super nice guy who took care of us back when Will took a spill here two years ago - opened the ceremony with a word of welcome, talking a little bit about the place and then handing the mic over to another butterfly expert who told us about the migration process. Each of the butterflies have been "tagged" (looks like a really tiny sticker on the inside of their wing) and their migration routes/patterns can be tracked. North American Monarchs are the only butterflies to make such a long two-way migration each year - up to 3000 miles! We were told that they often fly in masses and travel directly to the same winter destinations - often the same trees! However, each individual butterfly only makes this round trip once in their lifetime. So interesting!

Waiting patiently (sort of) by the pond for the release to begin.

They had a countdown: 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1!

(P.S. I totally didn't know Sophie could count backwards from 10! She did it right on track.)

Lifting the roof of the huge netted cylinder that was set up outside. There were probably only about 100 butterflies released and not all flew out immediately. They're not like dogs waiting to run outside and run around. Some of them flew out right away (the ones that were really close to the roof) and others just sort of took their time and trickled out.

Even so, it was a very cool thing to watch and, just like Duke said, many of these well "trained" butterflies (who are used to frequent visitors in their "home") hung around awhile and landed on people and flowers all around. So everyone was careful of where they sat and stepped!

Haha. :)

The release began at 12:30 and only lasted about 15 minutes or so, but we were still ~40 minutes from home and nap time was looming. So we quickly ate our packed lunch in the back of the Jeep (as we often do - haha!) and then headed for home.

A beautiful, fall day and a visit I highly recommend!