March 4 Kaity and Kenzie at Meijer Gardens

Saturday:  Like I said, Kenzie joined us today at the butterfly exhibition. I have a membership to Meijer Gardens (which will expire in May), but it is a "grandparent" membership with all 8 of my grandchildren listed. When we arrived at the Gardens, it was about 3:45. They exhibit closes at 5:00. I went up to the ticket booth and presented my membership card. Kaity and Kenzie were standing with me and the gentleman asked if they were my granddaughters. I told him Kaity was but that Kenzie is our friend, not family. BUT, since there was only about an hour left to see the exhibit, he let Kenzie in for free! Yes! I was able to return the $20 given to me by Scott and Megan to pay for Kenzie's ticket.

Here are some fun pictures of these dear girls:

I loved that they were wearing sunglasses! Aren't they beautiful girls?

Oh my word. I love these pictures.

After we saw the butterflies, we kind of wandered around outside of the Conservatory and ended up in this ghastly room with this giant spider. Yikes. I can't believe I actually posed with it.

Some very kind woman offered to take our pictures, so I handed her my camera. She did a nice job, I think. I rarely get to be in any pictures with my kiddos.

Here we are in the very empty "face" room ... The girls thought it would be fun to horse around in here, so I snapped a few pictures of them.

As we were exiting, there was this rock formation that actually reminded me of birdseed (the colors and patterns), but ... no ... it was definitely ROCK.

After Kenzie's nap (!!), they got up and decided to do a little jumping ...

... like these rocks were a trampoline or something. They can jump very high ... must be all that practicing over at Altitude (the trampoline place).

From Meijer Gardens, we drove to my house. While I was fixing our spaghetti dinner, the girls played with the MagnaTiles.

Emma played too! She joined us for dinner as well. And afterwards, all of the girls hung out for quite a long time playing games, etc. Plus, Kaity got out the marionette puppets (Charlie and Rat) and she and Kenzie had a blast with them. I took no pictures of that, however, which I regret. They were having such a great time. Kenzie really really liked Rat. Kaity is amazing at handling Charlie and making him look like he is really walking.

I am super thankful for this day. I loved driving in the car, listening to the girls sing along with all of the beautiful music about Jesus. Thank you, Lord. You are so AWESOME. 

March 4 Butterflies are Blooming!

Saturday:  I picked Kaity up this afternoon at 3:00. We were headed on over to "The Gardens" to see the butterfly display. Kaity was outside playing with her best friend (and next-door neighbor), Kenzie, when I arrived. So Kenzie was invited to come along with us. Her parents gave the approval and even the extra cash to get Kenzie into the exhibition. Both girls were very happy about the arrangement.

This first batch of pictures are just of the butterflies and flowers in the Meijer Gardens Conservatory. I'll do a separate "post" with pictures of Kaity and Kenzie. 

First of all: It's EARLY in the butterfly exhibit season ... later in the month and early on in April, there will be more butterflies flying about. Also, we visited on a Saturday and it was SUPER crowded. The next time I visit (I hope to), I will go alone, early on a sunny morning a bit later in the month.

This butterfly (below) is everyone's favorite. I got zero pictures of it with wings opened (inside the wings are an absolutely gorgeous color of blue). This the Common Morpho butterfly (from Central and South America).

My almost favorite thing about being inside the Conservatory is the intense heat and humidity. It makes me happy from head to toe!

We saw a lot of Postman butterflies (again from Central and South America) ... they were everywhere.

Here is the Tiger Longwing (Central/South America) ...

And here is a Zebra Longwing (Central/South America).

I tried to take a few shots through a cleft in the rock (in the tunnel) and this is the best one I got.

Here are the chrysalides and cocoons. My brochure says that 1,000 new chrysalides arrive each week at the Gardens. The Horticulture staff unpack and pin them for display while they await their transformation into butterflies. Hmmm ... metamorphosis ... kind of like what Christ does with people who come to Him in faith! He makes entirely NEW creatures of us.

Look at the Postman that has just emerged from its cocoon!

I can't find a picture to identify the one below--perhaps it is just a variation of a Postman.

Hopefully, later in the month there will be more varieties to see and photograph. In past years, I have been lucky enough to catch a picture or two of the Julia, the Costa Rica Clearwing, a Blue and White Longwing, a Tiger Longwing (Central/South America), as well as a Blue-Banded Swallowtail and African White Swallowtail! My favorite, though, was the Leopard Lacewing and the Paper Kite ... and I got a picture of a rather mangled Atlas Moth (from Asia)--which are gorgeous in color and design. 

I have more pictures, but they are of the young ladies who were with me! See next post ...

March 2 Body Builder KT!

Thursday:  It was SO nice to see Kaity this afternoon and evening. It had been more than a week since she had come over due to her being sick one week and then me being sick another. 

Kaity decided to show off her body building skills to me today. She cracked herself up--me TOO!

You see, every sibling Kaity has is very conscious of their body strength and fitness ... so she naturally has followed their example (or at least she TRIES to). These are actually Emma's eight pound weights that Kaity is using to show me a few exercises you can do if you are so inclined (I am not).

This next one super impressed me. Kaity is actually SITTING against my door, but there is NOTHING underneath to hold her up! PLUS, she has an eight pound weight on her lap! She makes this look so easy. 

I would TRY this (because it looks fun), but I value the health of my tailbone more than the joy of actually doing this. SO ... another exercise that this grandma will not do!

Miss Jen came by to deliver some AWANA papers to me so that I can encourage Kaity in her Bible studies there. Kaity was extremely NOT enthused by this at all. She was happy to see Miss Jen--but Kaity definitely does not enjoy anything to do with memorizing or reading or most of what is contained in these Awana materials. I am praying about this and asking the Lord to help me be more intentional about sharing the Lord with Kaity, even if she is totally not interested.

Miss Jen had some great news though! She is engaged to be married!!!! YES! I asked if her fiancé was "worthy" of her and she assured me that he is truly a wonderful person. I have prayed for this for Jen for quite some time. I am so happy for her I could burst. Just so you know, Miss Jen is one in a million. Seriously. She is so good with children--she is super patient, kind, wise, organized ... amazing. But more than all of that, she sincerely loves the Lord and seeks Him with her heart--and I see Him in her all the time. Beautiful. 

I also took Kaity over to my sister's so that she could meet Terry and her. We only stayed 5 minutes or so, but they greeted her with LOVE and welcomed her to come over with me anytime. Perhaps when the weather warms up and Terry puts the ping-pong table out in (what will soon be) their enclosed carport, we can all play ping-pong together on a real ping-pong table instead of on my too-small table top. I hope we do this!

March 1 "The Jesus Revolution"

Wednesday:  My sister and Terry are about 95% moved in to their place here at Leisure Village. Today, we had a little bit of "free" time and decided to see "The Jesus Revolution".

Here's the thing: The movie tells the story of the late 60's and early 70's of the Jesus Movement. I was 16, 17, and 18 during that time and was very impacted by the hippie movement and also what God was doing among them by His Spirit to bring them to Christ. "Papa" (Jim) was greatly impacted by the Jesus Movement too; and when he first became a believer (1974), he met other Christians at a downtown coffee house run at that time by Calvary Baptist Church. Pastor Dan Dinsmore was a regular down at the coffee house and regularly spoke with Jim to encourage him in his faith. Pastor Dinsmore was the best man in our wedding back in 1975.

And also, Terry was hugely impacted by Pastor Chuck Smith (and Calvary Chapel) and his ministry in California. Terry has been to Calvary Chapel and met Chuck Smith many years ago. He has often mentioned how much Chuck Smith means to him personally. 

I'm so glad we went to see the movie. We felt it was an accurate portrayal of that explosive time in our country and all over the world. People like Timothy Leary were shown advocating drugs that could make a person "be like God" and the movie also depicted quite accurately what "stoned" people's lives devolved into.

All of the folk who highlight this movie were flawed human beings--and the movie shows that quite clearly; but in spite of their sins and errors and bad judgment (at times), God used them to draw hopeless and broken people to a healing relationship with Himself.

After witnessing (via Youtube) the spiritual revival that took place at Asbury College (Kentucky) over the last few weeks, this movie is very timely in its release. It actually rated #3 at the box office last week in spite of its very limited release--something like 2400 theaters nationwide. 

Perhaps ... (please Lord?) many young and old people will see this film, turn from their hopelessness and sin and embrace God through Christ's life, death and resurrection. That is surely my prayer. Thank you, Lord, for this film and for how You used it to remind me of all those years ago and what happened to so many people through the moving of Your Spirit.

February 28 Music boxes and Cars

Tuesday:  My "littles" were here today for their usual 3-4 hours to play and just hang out. I took a few (!!) pictures of these little darlings:

I set the garage up on the coffee table today and attached a nice track down to the floor so that Cal could zoom and crash cars to his heart's content. He was busy at this for HOURS.

It's so cute when he brings a car over to the gas pump--he makes a little swishing sound with his mouth to represent the gas flowing into the gas tank--very serious about the entire process.

Erin did her usual cutting of letter sized paper into the tiniest possible scraps ... she is practicing using scissors, which is a very good skill to have! She truly enjoys just ... cutting paper!

Look how she concentrates!

I had our speedway set up today (but no train tracks) in order to give more space on the floor for racing. Cal adores this blue car that goes "super fast" and has lights!

Erin admires these artificial roses that Kaity gave me years ago ... mostly because they are from Kaity, whom Erin absolutely adores.

Today, Erin wanted to check out my "jewels" once again, so we did that briefly; but then I went and got out a few of my music boxes for her to explore ... it was love at first sight.

Erin is a very precious little girl, and she is at a very "chummy" age and loves to tell me EVERYTHING she is thinking about ... I love it.

Erin's favorite (and mine too) is my snow globe music box that plays "O Holy Night", which is quite fragile. She did a great job being careful with it. When I showed this to her 2 Christmases ago, she claimed that the church was HER Orthodox Church!

By about 2:15 or so, I was pretty worn out between playing garage with Cal and trying to keep up with Erin's conversations. I put on FROZEN for the kiddos to watch and cleaned a few things up while they were watching. 

On our ride back to their house, Cal fell asleep; but Erin did not! She was wide awake and singing the whole time. We got back in time to get Aidan off his bus and unload Cal to the couch to finish his nap. Brendan came home soon after and we all just played and hung out until Dylan and Kelly arrived home shortly before 6:00. With help, I was able to unload the dishwasher and reload it in time for the arrival of our yummy pizza dinner. I had a little time to visit with Dylan and Kelly too, which is always a good time. My life is very enriched by this dear family.