Birds and Boats and Butterflies

Way back at the beginning of April, the boys and I went for a walk to Nola and Nopsi's for a little break from schoolwork. Nola showed us some baby birds that had been recently born in one of her hanging plants on the side porch. Then on our walk back home, we stumbled across a mama duck and about a dozen ducklings hanging out in the shade of some trees near the canal. Riley tried really hard to get them to come to him, and although they approached, they wouldn't get too close.

I explained that they probably thought we had food for them, to which the boys replied, "Then let's go get some!" So we walked home, grabbed some stale bread, and went back to feed the duckies. Super cute.

Two days later, we went on another outdoor adventure. We drove across the lake and took Grandpa's newly fixed boat out for a cruise on the Tchefuncte River. No better way to social distance than on the water on a beautiful afternoon!

The next day our two chrysalises finally hatched. The amount of caterpillars we had in our backyard this spring was INSANE; they completely devoured all of our milkweed. I think we counted more than 40 chrysalises hanging all over the back of the house (and the fence and the playset) at one time. We rescued a couple that had fallen and brought them inside to see if they would hatch. They did! I finally got to see a new butterfly emerge live and in person; so cool.

Nature is just amazing, y'all.