Raising and Releasing Ladybugs

There are days when it is so apparent to me that we're really living the good life.  Now I'm not talking about rolling in dough, taking lots of fancy & lavish vacations, or any of that sort of stuff, but we're blessed to be living such an enriched life full of family, friends, and good times.

We spent our afternoon at the park, sitting in the shade of the tree, playing and visiting with friends both old and new.  We were relaxed, laughing, and resting.

It was one of those times when I just didn't want to see it all end.  I sat there thinking about just how many of these days we have and couldn't help but think how lucky we are.

It's a blessing most days to be able to spend so much time with my boys and meet so many amazing families that just "get" us and support us and lift us up when we might be floundering.

When I realized that we not only had a fun, relaxing day but we learned too and I'm ecstatic!



We started our day releasing our ladybugs.  I'm not sure when they all hatched since I only had noticed two or three of them the other day but our ladybug habitat was crawling with them this morning!

We decided to release them in our garden and helped many of them onto flowers and plants.  We had such a great time raising and releasing our bugs.  They were so easy to take care of and so educational too! We got them from Insect Lore and we just love their products.      

Alec reached right in and let them crawl up and down his arm, turning his hands this way and that watching them, feeling them tickle, and saying goodbye to them.  We weren't sure if all of the ladybugs had hatched yet so we replaced the cover and brought our dome back into the house for another few days.


Helping the ladybug find a good flower



 We ran a quick errand to meet a homeschooling mom and buy her old Harry Potter Scene It game.  I had thought to keep it as a Christmas gift but couldn't bear to keep it from the boys that long.  They were so excited that they asked to play the game the moment we walked in the door.

In playing, I realized that my kids are Harry Potter experts!  They remembered things and characters and events better than I could (and I've been a Harry Potter fan since the first book came out!).  

They often shouted out the answers at the exact same time as one another and we'd have to have another tie breaker question.  It was a long game but Alec finally won (the rest of us were only 4-5 spaces away so any roll might have changed the outcome).

I think we're going to be getting a lot of use out of this game.


We listened to our book on CD in the car while heading to the park.

We had a good 8 or 10 families show up; some pretty brand new to homeschooling and all us moms settled under the tree to chat and gab.  We exchanged stories and advice on homeschooling, parenting, our kids, and whatever other topics came up.  We watched the kids playing and the various groups that naturally break off and reform as the afternoon plays out.

My kids often relaxed in the shade with their friends under a separate tree.  Ian relaxed and took a short nap and enjoyed talking with some of the moms.

Some of the kids (a few of mine included) decided to cool off in the splash park and got nice and soaked.

That's when it hit me that we'd had a perfectly perfect day and I'm pretty sure we're lucky enough to have more than our fair share of those.



Brothers and friends! 

   Linking Up With:

JENerally Informed


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