40/52: Butterflies and Hair Bows

We're currently in the "second summer" (or maybe third summer by now...) phase of fall, which has been fairly glorious for spending time outside (although yesterday it was 87 degrees and I was feeling pretty over it). There's been a renewed interest in trash kites (plastic grocery bags with string tied around the handles), forsythia crowns, plenty of peppers from the garden (the tomatoes sadly gave up very early this year, I think because of our extreme weather), and butterflies galore!

Every year we plant more and more flowers to help feed the bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. It looks like we've become a small stop on some monarch butterflies' migration route! There was one day when they were all over the zinnias in our raised beds, and we kept finding them everywhere we went—the kids were ecstatic! We found a dead one in a parking lot when we were running errands and Cecilia sadly told me, "I guess this one won't be able to make its migration..." They've moved on, but it was fun while it lasted!

The other day Edith found one of Mary Claire's hair bows and asked to wear it, only to be viciously rebuffed by Miss Possessive. She was absolutely desolate, so I ordered a set of 40 bows on Amazon, (affiliate link, just in case you also need 40 bows) and everyone was ecstatic when they came! We had an interesting afternoon in which several of them wore as many bows as they possibly could, and then I decided that the house rule is "only two bows at a time, and you may only leave the house with the bows in your hair." In the interest of not losing all the bows, and also in the interest of not looking totally ridiculous. The boys have been happily wearing them as bow ties, but thankfully haven't tried to leave the house that way!