Bathing Suits and Butterflies

The triplets had their last day of school this week. It was really a hard day for me them as they said goodbye to their teachers and friends. We will see lots of them again this summer at camp and playdates, but not on as consistent a basis as we did during the year. It's amazing to see how much they can grow and change in a school year. Here they are the first day of school this year ....

And here they are the last day of school this week ...

They really do look a lot older. After I wiped away the tears after saying goodbye, we headed home and summer officially began. I think we've consumed an entire box of popsicles and worn our bathing suits at least five times since school let out. You definitely know it's summer when you wear your bathing suit for the majority of the day.

We've broken out the water table/sink and buckets.

And have saturated the lawn with hour-long sprinkler sessions.

We've also been "raising" butterflies for the past few weeks. I use the term "raising" very loosely because it mainly consisted of trying to keep the kids from killing the caterpillars, cocoons, and butterflies while they did their thing on their own. Let's just say that 2 and 3 year olds don't really understand the word "gentle" yet. They also don't seem to understand the phrase, "Stop shaking/poking/yelling at the butterflies!". But all five butterflies made it out alive and we released them into the wild, so to speak. I'm sure what they are experiencing now is pure paradise compared to the "wild" of our house.

(Pardon my use of quotations in the previous paragraph. Sometimes I can tend to get a little "quote happy" - See?)

Releasing the butterflies ...

Adah waving goodbye to Jim (coincidentally, they named another one of the butterflies Pam - I swear we don't let our kids watch The Office).

The butterflies were pretty small. Here's one next to Luke's finger to give you an idea.

Trying not to let the kids step on the butterfly. Pam just didn't want to leave. I think she missed Jim. He ditched her as soon as the top of the net was opened. Men ...

Finally, Pam decided to be a real woman, not let a man define her, and ventured out into the peaceful calm of the world. We didn't tell the kids that she only has about 2-4 weeks to enjoy her new world (according to the instructions on the butterfly farm). Some things are just better left unsaid. So when they proclaim to see Jim and Pam all summer long, I'll just smile and nod and hope that they at least enjoyed a few weeks of calm before heading to that big butterfly farm in the sky.