YeeeHaww!!

It finally happened, YES!! We had pre-school storytime this morning. They encourage the parents to leave the kids with the librarian and go out into the main library. I asked Michael this morning if he was going to do storytime without Momma this morning and he said yes. I didn't for a second think he would but guess What!! He went right in the library ran to the back room opened the door to the room and stayed in there!! YES!! I was so proud of him!! I sat at a table and watched through the windows and he was very well behaved for the most part...Listening to the stories being read and doing the finger games and dancing...I breathed a sigh of relief, my son is growing up!! No more baby, no more toddler, but a young man has emerged and I love it!! I strive for my son to be independent but it's so hard when we are home all the time. He has me and we play a lot together but today he took another step toward independence!! He did it without Momma!! Now maybe next time I can use the time to research and look for books without worrying about where Michael is and what is he getting into!! I am so proud of him and what he accomplished today!!

Butterflies, Bugs and Boy :o)

Today was a good day for the letter "B"....

Bumble Bee!

Michael found this grasshopper and just had to have a photo of it...Like there aren't a million grasshoppers all around!!
Michael playing around...and trying to sneak around!

Unidentified Red and Black Beatle...I thought he was cool!

Border Patch Butterfly

Hairstreak Butterfly

Border Patch Butterfly in the weeds and grass.

Skipper Butterfly

Sideview of the Skipper.

Beautiful Butterfly and other Misc photos

I was out picking chili petins (Chiltepins) when I spotted this beautiful butterfly on the wild mums next to me...I didn't have my camera so I just sat and watched it wondering what kind of butterfly it was...I then decided to run and grab the camera as it was staying on the plant moving from bud to bud...Thank goodness it stayed there until I got back. I was able to get a few photos before it fluttered off...

Gulf Fritillary on a Wild Mum bud.
The backside not as pretty as the side view. Hmm I wonder if that is what Fred thinks of my backside view, LOL.....

For all of you this is what I pick almost daily this time of year. While I'm picking the chili's Michael rides his tractor around and around...Zoom Zoom!! I have about 6 good sized chili plants and I pick the red chilis and put them in the freezer. They are pretty darn HOT and we don't eat them but Grand-Pocka uses them in tamales and makes hot sauce with them.

And of course what would a day be like if we didn't get a photo of Michael riding his tractor!!

Mischievous Marvin

My Mother has been sending me the Marvin cartoons out of her local paper for several years and I can't help but laugh when I read them as they remind me so much of our household...Above is the latest one and I thought I'd share the chuckle with all of you other Mothers out there....Enjoy!!

The Weekend

It was a fairly busy weekend. We had a load of gravel/rock/clay brought out Saturday morning and Fred put it in the dry creek bed. He did a great job and now if it's dry I can get my truck across. Now hopefully we won't have any more flooding as I think 6 inches of rain might just wash it out again, sigh! We are preparing to but a bridge back over it again and have several options we are looking at, stay tuned for that. I shredded/mowed the rest of Saturday and had finished most of the property by evening time. This morning (Sunday) I felt like I had a hangover...I was sore and my eyes were swollen from dust and pollen....If Fred had mowed he wouldn't have been able to get out of bed as his allergies are pretty bad. Maybe tomorrow I'll get photos of the work we accomplished...it looks pretty good. Today we spent visiting Grandpa and resting, lol...

This is Michael on the gravel! He was enjoying it and had actually thought we had it brought out for him, ha ha ha...little did he know....and then when Daddy starting scooping it up with the tractor and putting it in the Dry creek bed he was very upset and screaming at Daddy to stop...I gave Michael a shovel and this seemed to calm him down a bit...he wasn't too happy with us!!

I got Daddy to pose with Michael on top of the pile. Michael just thought he was king of the mountain...

The work begins and you can just see how tall the brush was and how rough the dry creek bed was!!

Color Photo Challenge ~ Yellow

The photo challenge this week was color, and I chose yellow.

Giant Swallowtail on a wild Mum bloom

Michaels tractor with the color accent turned on on the camera.

Lantana bloom with the color accent turned on on the camera.

Wild Mum blooms with the color accent turned on on the camera.

Silver leaf sunflowers with the color accent turned on on the camera.

Hummingbirds

Unbelievable but we had no rain today. I waited for the grass to dry, we had a decent breeze, so by this afternoon I was able to mow. This evening I sat outside and attempted to get a decent photo of a hummingbird. Below are the two photos out of several that I took that came out half way decent.

Male Ruby Throat Hummingbird.

He has been guarding the feeder and keeping all other hummingbirds away, the Big Bully!!

The above photo isn't very good but I loved the reflection in the window, thought it was pretty cool. Don't look at my dirty windows, guess you know what I'll be doing tomorrow, LOL....