Celebrating the beginning of summer!

Summer is here! It started on Tuesday at 12:16 pm, Chicago time, for those of you keeping track of such things. Me? I am apparently one of those who “keeps track of such things”.

And of course, summertime means that school is out! But Ordinary Mommy is tricky! She disguises school as a celebration of summer and a scavenger hunt to the park.

Here is what Middle Daughter saw in our backyard:

And here is Oldest Daughter’s completed scavenger hunt page:

The funny thing is that Oldest Daughter didn’t really want to go for a walk. But once she started finding things on the scavenger hunt page, everything changed.

Youngest Daughter didn’t want to fill out the sheets, so she wrote a poem:

She stopped writing before she had recorded the entire verse. In its entirety, it goes like this:

How do you know I love daffodils?
I just love, love, love the daffodils!
How do I know I love daffodils?
I just love, love, love the daffodils!

(According to Ordinary Spouse, they were actually day lilies. But that’s ok.)

A seasonal poll

It’s been a while since the last poll, so it’s time for a new one. This one is easy, but if the answers don’t apply to your current locale, feel free to add your own.

P.S. If you’re so inclined, leave some comments explaining your choice!

Good-bye to summer, part 2

One week ago, my family released our last butterfly of summer. Last year we only had one or two, but this year we probably had about fifteen grow to maturity in our house.

Here are two more fun pictures as we continue the process of bidding farewell to summer…

Last day of spring: first day of Summer…

Summer (our monarch caterpillar) emerged from her chrysalis this morning. Oldest Daughter checked on her condition early in the morning while Summer was still inside. Sometime in the next hour, Summer made her first grand appearance as an adult. Here she is after Ordinary Spouse took her outside to warm up in the sun.

Waiting for Summer

Last year in August, I shared about our pet monarch caterpillar, Stripe-ilicious. This year, Stripe-ilicious’ great-granddaughter came to our house, and we adopted her. Her name is Summer.

This is Summer when she was a baby:

Then, at the end of last week, Summer changed into a chrysalis. Ordinary Spouse captured this cool video:

(Maybe my recently retired Ordinary Biologist Father could view the video and then answer the pressing question: “What happens to their eyes?”)

Anyway, Summer is now “hanging out” in the kitchen. If she follows Stripe-ilicious schedule, we may see her emerge at the end of this week.

Those lazy, hazy days of summer

Here’s the forecast for the Chicago ‘burbs for the next four days (July 17-20).  It would seem that the lazy and hazy days of summer are also crazy.

I’m liking this!

Small joys… the best day of the summer

My wife and I have a running joke about the “best day of the year”, which we define as the first day of a long vacation.  Often, I’ll take an extra vacation day, just so I can spend some time at home (or close by) doing whatever I want, before we leave for wherever it is that we’re travelling.  (And it seems like our vacations always involve travelling somewhere.)  Frequently, the “best day of the year” comes at the beginning of the Thanksgiving or Christmas break.

Well, today is the “best day of summer”.  Work is complete for the week.  I’m about to shut down my computer.  I have the weekend and Monday to do odd jobs around the house and pack up the van before we hit the road on Tuesday:  Mennonite convention, a stop at my parents’ place, and a family reunion at Laurelville.  Woo-hoo!

And here’s your gratuitous video!

 

Summer refreshment (cont)

And one more drink.  This one comes with a story.

Summer refreshment

Summer time is fast approaching.  Recently, my wife made some mint tea that made me say, “Wow!  That’s refreshing!”  Those are the kind of drinks that you want in summer.  Cool and light.  Nothing  heavy.  So here is that drink and another to get you started.