Jake's butterfly

We went on a walk on a nature trail the other day..just looking for bugs to catch. We stumbled upon a butterfly that was still coming out of it's cocoon! It was almost completely out and was still drying in the sun so it was very easy to catch. I put it inside of Jake's bug bucket and then we walked back to the van.

He showed that butterfly to everyone in the park who was willing to have a look into his bucket. He decided that it was a Peacock butterfly, based on one of the butterflies in the Animal Crossing game. I have no idea if it was or not, but I just went along with his assumption. LOL

He talked to it all the way home and studied every single dot on it's wings. When we got home he let it go and I took a video of that whole extravaganza. It's uploaded on YouTube, so refresh this page and have a look. Jake and the butterfly.

Bugs...

Jake with his bug net. Forget those ducks behind him, he was looking for dragonflies.

Jacob has a new fascination with bugs and fish because of the Nintendo game, Animal Crossing. In that game you can catch fish and bugs that have real world counterparts. He knows a lot about fish based on his experience in that game.

He begs and begs for me to take him fishing to catch a REAL fish. At first I bought him a toy fishing rod that satisfied his urge to fish for maybe a week. We quickly moved up to a real fishing rod, but I won't buy him a hook to put on the end of it. It currently has a fish shaped counter weight on the end that works fine and allows him to cast the line out pretty far.

He LOVED this fishing rod and it was his favorite thing for nearly a month, but now he has decided that he needs a hook. Every single body of water strikes up his curiosity and he looks at me and says, "do you think that there are fish in there?". Even the large puddle at the end of my driveway will house fish in his five year old mind. LOL

I thought I would try to steer him from the whole fish theme by purchasing him a bug net. He runs around the yard all day long and catches bugs for me. However, when he does actually manage to catch a bug in that net he will start to scream for me to come set it free. Every single bug that he sees triggers the same question for me to answer, "what does that bug do to you?". If it will bite or sting...he wants no part of it. heehee. I took him to the park and he actually caught a dragonfly and a toad in his bug net. It was a lot of work and he was terrified when they were actually in his net. It's so funny because he wants to catch them and as soon as he does ...it's a scream fest!

However, his discussion about catching those bugs afterwards would rival the story about the Little Tailor. Remember that Mickey Mouse cartoon? He killed 5 flies, but somehow it was turned into 5 giants in one swat. Jacob is like the "dragon slayer" of bugs. ....the Steve Irwin of the preschool set.

Here are a few pictures of Jake with his fishing pole in the back yard.

There is a video clip of him on YouTube...smashing ants. It just struck me as very funny that day. I also plan on uploading one of him fishing in the backyard. Maggie was playing with him that day, chasing the fishing line.

Alllll together now

Well, college is out for the summer and the older kids are back home. I see higher electric bills, water bills and grocery bills in the very near future. LOL

It's nice to have everyone home again. Micah thoroughly enjoys no longer being the oldest in the house and having someone besides Jake to discuss sports with. Jake (his own words) likes that everyone is sleeping here again, the WHOLE family. He gets worried about where people sleep for some reason.

There will be some major battles for the Wii as Jacob is accustomed to having it all to himself and Caleb is accustomed to doing whatever he wants. Lets just say that our first day back together wasn't a "scream free" day. Then, of course, the Lakers lost..which made all the testosterone driven residents grumble and complain.

This morning was a good one. Caleb got up and mowed the lawn and moved around some of those annoying tree parts from the storm last fall. Alex and I started our little garden and planted some peppers and tomato's. Jake just kicked the soccer ball around the entire time. Then Alex and I rented a GIRL movie!! It is so rare that I have someone to watch those with, LOL...we watched "Bride Wars". It's wasn't great, but it wasn't horrible either.

Tatebe clan is back together again for the summer. wooohooo!! Good thing they all have a DS, huh?

Easter eggs

Oh yeah....Easter Eggs!! There isn't to much to say about them. Jake dyed his hands every color of the rainbow and enjoyed himself tremendously. I had to do at least ONE egg...that is mine with the little blue hearts all around.

Alex and Micah found a box of latex gloves and decided to utilize those to keep their hands from changing colors.

Caleb abstained from our traditional Easter festivities. He hasn't dyed eggs or carved a pumpkin since he was 10 year old. I guess he's just not the "holiday" type of person. He stayed in the living room and played Rock Band with Tilden. Alex never misses the opportunity to dye eggs. :)

I know this is a little late, but I finally uploaded a little video montage of Micah playing basketball. I spliced a few scenes together and it should show up on the Youtube link.

Have you seen Susan Boyles?

While I was watching some entertainment news last night I saw this clip about a 47 year old Scottish woman named Susan Boyles. She tried out for Britan's Got Talent and wowed the judges, included Simon Cowel.

Well, on a whim in a moment of bordem today I decided to google her and have a look at her song. It popped up on YouTube and has had 20 MILLION views in under a week.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

I watched it out of curiosity to see what the buzz was and I was so shocked to find myself crying. I can't even pinpoint why it made me cry. It was something about her "sweetness" and her total unphased simple personality. She gives you something to laugh at in the beginning in her little pre interview because she's so witty. When she takes the stage she is actually booed as soon as the crowd hears her age. It doesn't even bother her and she just starts singing. She shuts the crowd and the judges right up in about 2 seconds into her song. When she is done she simply walks off the stage and has to be called back. She is just SOOOOO completely lovable and you want her to succeed. I couldn't help , but to share her video. LOL

Track update

I figured that I'd keep you all posted on Micah's progress. He had his second track meet today and dropped his times in both the mile and the 800 meters. Both races had around 20 participants.
He came in 5th in the mile with a time of 5:53!! Obviously, he is getting faster :)
He came in 3rd in the 800 meter with a time of 2:51. He was in the top 2 kids from his school in this race, which was the goal. Only the top 2 times can go to some of the bigger meets. He was trying to be in that elite group.
After the meet his coach came up to us and said, "Wow, that Micah is improving fast. He's doing great for a 7th grader. He runs his hardest at practice and always listens to us and that is why he's getting better. He's easy to coach."
Tilden and I were pretty proud of him. Not only is he working his butt off at track, but he also got a 4.0 this grading period. Add to that the fact that he made it through the second sets of cuts in his try outs for the Olympic Development Soccer Team. THAT is incredibly difficult to do. They only take the cream of the crop to form the Ohio team. He made it part way last year, but was cut at this point. He's gone one step further so far.
The try outs are pretty far away and it's a commitment from US as well as Micah. He begged us to allow him to try out because he just loves this sport. Everyone else that is trying out has been playing for international teams and paid thousands of dollars for personal training and elite camps. Micah is going in there with just sheer talent...very little training. No one knows who he is, but he is fighting his way through try outs and forcing them to notice him. LOL He sure is scrappy!

Kraynak's

If you are missing Kraynaks....here you go!

Easter Bunny Lane.

Jake and Micah liked this SpongeBob scene the best.

Jake was pretty enthralled with this giant stuffed duck. He talked a lot about how it needed to come home with him and be his "new friend". LOL
I'm not sure what this scene was all about, but it appeared that Sesame Street characters were attending a birthday party for Winnie The Pooh.

A trip to Kraynak's isn't complete until you've wandered through the green house and smelled all the flowers. :)

My picture in the header is actually from Kraynak's 2008. heehee