Yesterday morning, I just said, “Blah,” to the daily routine of home school and chores and took all the children outside to the front yard. They ran, raced, rode bikes and scooters, killed orcs, counted fritillary caterpillars under Spanish needle leaves, played hide-n-seek, and invented a cool new way of hopscotch. We found a pair of yellow and purple leaf-footed bugs on the passion flower vine.
Ty and I raced from the neighbor’s house, around the corner to our black car. I won both times. He will tell you that we tied, though. Don’t believe him.
There was a time when all we found in our butterfly garden were Monarch larvae. The milkweeds were nothing but sticks from being munch munch munched on by these hungry caterpillars. The leaves were totally eaten and became just weed plants, nothing but slender, green twigs that stuck out of pots. Now that the milkweeds are recovering, the Spanish needle has become the host for the tens and tens of fritillaries. It’s rather awesome. We have to be careful where to step and where to mow for fear of crushing them. They don’t chew on St. Augustine grass, so I set the babies’ bouncers down on a patch of grass.
About killing orcs, there aren’t really any orcs in our neighborhood. The children practice hunting and slaying orcs in case they need that skill in the future.
Ty busted out the sidewalk chalk and began drawing a hopscotch game. He didn’t attach the boxes. Well, 2 and 3, he did. But after that, he drew small boxes that weren’t even the size of his foot all the way up the sidewalk up to box 40. Forty.
Then he drew a family portrait.
We were out there for two hours.
