Butterfly Bonanza

So check this out. Mom and Dad's friend Steph gave us this amazing butterfly thingy.

The caterpillars came in a jar and then you put them in this house where they could morph into butterflies.

So they crawled up into their chrysallis'es and did their thing for a few days...

and then they turned into real live butterflies! There were two boys and two girls and I named them Zachary, Rainbow, Flutter and Jacque-Jacque, and then it was time for their release into the real world.

We were going to go to a park to release them into nature but we decided to do it in our backyard so that maybe they would live somewhere close by.

Okay, get ready. Are you ready?

And GO!

Then it was Mae's turn.

Whatcha got in there, Mae?

And GO!

And after three of them had flown away, Flutter decided to set up shop on Mae's wand. We knew from the get-go that she was kind of a home body and might have a tough time leaving the nest; she always did seem to have dependency issues...

Eventually Flutter flew the roost. She's right there in that picture. What, you mean you can't see her?

West Fest!

So it's Festival season in Chicago, which means each weekend there are awesome festivals around the city to visit. And last weekend was no different - it was West Fest time, folks.

Mae got herself all painted up like a little butterfly.

Then we graffiti'd a wall...

 

And then the experts were like, "Mae, Fin, you guys are amateurs."

A little ways down the block was a drum group that I wanted to check out. The head drummer guy leads the group with the beat and everyone else improvises in their own beats.

 

Pa rum-pa-pum-pum

After a little while with the tom drum and the stick mom and I went back to the well to see what other instruments we could find...

And I got me some egg shakers.

It was like a book club, but instead of sitting around talking about Hunger Games we sat around making beats (much preferred to book club).

 Let's just say West Fest earned itself two thumbs up (in my new dress - whoot  whoot!).

Spooked

So Devil's Night came and went and not much harm came with a couple of insects out and about trick or treating. We took to the burbs out by my cousins' houses - Mae as a ladybug and me as a butterfly. Oh, and costumes are a bit of a drag with winter coats on - I don't ever remember a ladybug wearing a jacket.

Mae got her first taste of strangers putting candy in your bag, and she dug it.

Luckily Isaiah was there to help her up and down the all the houses' stairs.

After some trick or treating by Eli's and Sophie's house we headed out to Nana's for the annual Halloween Sloppy Joe's dinner. Stopped along the way to put some headband jangles on Buddy, which I thought was pretty funny and he seemed to enjoy as well.

I know what you're thinking - wait, Finley, you were going to paint your face as a butterfly. Yep, I was, and then Stace and I decided to color this butterfly mask thing we found. But then, at the third stinking house, it was falling off my face and I fell down the stairs, so that was the end of the mask.

Back to Nana's - Buddy and Mae did their photo thing...

And then they did their bonding/hugging/love thing, which is exclusive to Buddy and Mae.

Did one more round of trick or treating by Nana's. Mae really had the hang of it this time. Just dug into the people's buckets 3, 4, even 5 times and stuffed candy into her bag. I mean, just look at little old Mae, who's gonna tell her to stop. She scored massive amounts of candy.

All in all, a very, very Happy Halloween (that's Nana and Eli with us, if you couldn't tell).

Festival Season

So it's that time of year in Chicago. Even though the weather clearly has not been informed yet, it's Summer time in Chicago, which means lots of good things, one of which is that it's Festival Season. Every weekend there's an awesome festival in some neighborhood or another.

This one happened to be right outside our house so we headed down and though I really needed a nap, I was hot to trot on getting my face painted.

So I sat down and got prepared...

Took on a little makeup...

And then a little more...

When all of a sudden the woman said to Dad, "I think she's asleep," to which Dad apparently said "Finley!" about 4-5 times before I slowly opened my eyes. What can I say, getting your face painted is relaxing. Just about done...

And voila - a butterfly.

And I kept that puppy on for 2.5 days straight. I refused showers, washing my face, going in the pool, brushing my teeth, anything that remotely would mess up my blue butterfly.