Butterflies, Flowers, and Everyday Life

 We hatched our final butterflies last week. Since they seem to hatch around 9 or 9:30 in the morning I've missed them while at work -- but Michael takes videos and sends them to me so I don't have to miss out on the fun.

This is the end of my exercise walks: the reservoir at Eagle Creek:

Drew and I did an "end of summer before college starts outing" -- we didn't eat cake like Rachel and I did, we burned up calories by canoeing on Eagle Creek. 

We had some good laughs about this seemingly very tall Great Blue Heron.

I spent a total of three days at the flower shop. Such gorgeous flowers right now because Emily's in-law's are bringing in fresh flowers from their farm.

Such happiness is wrapped up in these bouquets!

While I worked on market bouquets the other talented floral designers created wedding flowers. They were so beautiful I could almost cry!

On Friday I got to help make the wedding installation on site (at our Central Library!):

Rachel went back to Purdue on Saturday and Sunday evening we enjoyed a barbecue dinner with both Grandmas present. There was local corn (thanks to James' side-gig as a corn-picker on Saturday) and local tomatoes (nothing like them!). 

Masks are our new art form around here and this week James created a dwarf beard mask for one of his teachers at school. 

My garden is just full of birds and butterflies and hummingbirds and praying mantis' right now. It's bringing me so much joy!

I also enjoyed taking time to paint our Cake Bake Shop experience from last week. 

And now we are into a new week!

Beautiful August

I'm thankful for temperate weather so far in August -- it makes for a beautiful month. 

Flower therapy Monday: I loved the candy pink colors and the bright pink wheat stalks. 

I got two morning walks in and loved this view so much I had to paint it later in the week.

David met the sign that graduated in abstentia for him from eighth grade back in July.

White peaches are my favorite! They taste like a raspberry-flavored exotic fruit. Their color is just beautiful too!

I kept up the hard work on preparing for my fall online nature journaling classes. If you haven't checked them out yet, you can find all the information here! Did I mention that I'm also blogging exclusively about nature now on my new blog "The Nature Journaler"? 

Drew is about to end his Subway career so Michael and I went to visit him. 

Thursday brought more beautiful flowers:

Friday I snuck away to my secret point with blankets, books, paints, and food for a few hours of vacation.

It was glorious!

There was plenty of wildlife to enjoy as well!

Rachel heads back to college this week so we planned a mother-daughter outing to celebrate the end of summer. We headed to the Cake Bake shop in Carmel.

This was a FUN outing: chocolate cake, macarons, and loose-leaf tea!

This is a destination not to miss!

We're going to miss Rachel! She's got to go back and work hard on that engineering degree!

And that was our week......

The Last Hurrah

Two weeks ago the weather was so warm and the day so beautiful that I looked at the calendar, cancelled the rest of the afternoon and took the kids out on the water. David and Laura had never been. 

Rachel and Andrew got the double kayak.

You can see how gorgeous the sky was and the leaves were just towards the end. The temperature was amazing -- upper 60's.

 It could not have been a more beautiful day!


We headed around a bend toward the yacht club to check out "Terrapin Station" -- a tiny little island in the middle of the inlet.

Everyone wanted to get out and "explore". The water level of the reservoir was so low that it made landing very easy.

Here I am in the back of the canoe having the time of my life!

And when we headed back out of the inlet this is the scene that greeted us. I couldn't get enough of it!!!

We pulled in to the little peninsula for dinner.

This is super happy me -- having a real adventure with the kids, surrounded by beauty!

We even had a blimp fly over!

The sunset got even more magical as the younger boys took the canoe out for a little paddle on their own.

I think everyone was feeling giddy with happiness!

Just look at that sunset!!!

So that was our last big fall adventure. It was marvelous!!! The next day I went to my mom's for my scheduled painting lesson and I knew exactly what I wanted to paint!!

So far, November continues to be mild! My summer flower pot is still blooming by the front door despite several frosts. Today it was around 60. But I think the fun on the lake is gone until next year.