My baby is 5

Yikes, my baby is 5? I'm not even sure how this is true. He had a nice, long, extended birthday this week. A special birthday outing with my parents to Howell's pumpkin patch, a picnic and cupcake shabang at our house with his preschool buddies, and a sushi date with Mike and I on his actual birthday. He's my special little man, and I love him to bits.

It's a proud parenting moment for me when a child of mine requests sushi for his birthday lunch.

It's perhaps an even prouder moment when he eats it with abandon

I think the staff at Haiku was excited to have a 5-yr-old celebrate his birthday with them. They brought him a dessert with candles (and we've been back since then, and they remember him and always bring him free dessert!)

After lunch, Mike went back to work while Gavin and I crossed the street into Drake's campus and strolled through the grounds, finding bulldog statues, the painted street, and the sun dial where Mike and I were married twelve and a half years ago. 

The spot where his parents were married over a decade ago. 

Happy 5th Birthday to my little Gav Man.

And we have lift off!

Exactly 2 weeks after our little monarch chrysalis came to our house and got put in a mason jar for childlike viewing pleasure, we noticed that it had changed dramatically:

And then about an hour later, we noticed this:

So we transferred the little beauty outside and placed her/him here. The next morning she/he was gone, so I consider this a metamorphic success!

Monarch tales

On a trip around the pond the other day, we noticed some swamp milkweed plants growing out of the rocks around the drainage pipes to our pond. Upon further inspection, Gavin, Mike & I discovered dozens of monarch caterpillars eating the leaves. It was so cool to see. Gavin and I went back yesterday to check on them, and some were hanging upside down, ready for chrysalis formation. Today Mike and Gavin did another check and discovered a crhysalis. They brought it home so we can watch the progress in a mason jar, and release it after it emerges. Nothing like a little home science to peak all of our interest in nature!

I didn't actually get a photo of Gavin with a monarch caterpillar, for whatever reason. But I did take this one of him with a fuzzy yellow one. 

Monarch chrysalis

Friends

I've been thinking so very much lately about how grateful and lucky I am to have so many valued friendships. In all of our lives, there are things we wish we could do better, or had more time for.  Achieving life balance is this never-ending journey that is always a struggle. I sometimes step back and take stock of where I'm at, and make mental lists of what areas of my life need more attention, and which areas I can currently rock. It changes ALL the time, of course. But one area of my life that has felt solid for quite some time, and which I'm eternally blessed with, is a community of very good women friends who I know I can turn to at any time. I have a lot of different circles of friends that fill so many different needs, from the distant past, to the nearer past, to the present. I am thankful every day for the many amazing women that inspire me, support me, and make me laugh. 

Some of my oldest friendships remain the strongest, 25ish years later. Bridget and Kelly at Centro during a recent weekend visit. 

I'm so grateful for the many new friendships I've come to enjoy over the past couple years. My "new" book club friends, Emily, Erin, and Susan.