Butterflies

As I mentioned in this post about Clara at four, she really loves animals but especially bugs.  Mama K had a fabulous birthday present for her this year.  Caterpillars!  We received in the mail a box that looked like this:

And inside was a canister of food and five teeny tiny caterpillars (that I was sure were already dead).  Over the next several weeks they ate their way to plump and climbed to the top of the jar and made chrysalides.  We transferred the chrysalides to a butterfly home and then a few weeks later, out they popped.  We released them in our driveway.

Clara, of course, loved this whole experience.  But I must say, the adults were pretty enthralled too.  It had been many many years since I'd watched the whole process up close like this and it's nothing short of miraculous.  The reminder of life during the Easter season was especially powerful.   We had such fun, I think we'll order more caterpillars again next year!

Big Girl Room

We've been slowly working on Clara's big girl room since Christmas in hopes of moving her into it on her birthday (and making room for baby sister in the nursery.)  It's been an evolving project, but I'm so so happy with how it turned out.  I started with this beautiful quilt that Robert's Memaw made years ago.

I love the bright colors and just think it's so special to have something handmade by her great grandmother in her room.  We asked Clara what color she wanted her room to be and she insisted on blue, so Robert I painted it one Saturday morning in January.

Once the room was painted, I started searching for fabric for the curtains and stumbled on this which just felt perfect for Clara.  Not only did it match the blue perfectly, but it brought the outside in to her room.  She's a nature girl for sure, and I loved this subtle touch.  Mama K did the hard labor of turning them into actual curtains for us (and made some pillows too!)

 Then, to complete the nature feel without totally overdoing it, my dear friend Sarah, who is extremely talented, came up from SC to paint some wildlife in Clara's room.  You might remember that Clara was a chickadee for Halloween last year... this child really loves her some birds.  And these sweet little touches tucked in on door frames and in corners are so perfect and so dear. She might not forgive me for posting these, because she was exhausted from 12+ hours of straight painting, but here are some "in progress" shots:

Clara wanted to draw on the walls "just like Ms. Sarah."

They couldn't have turned out any better.  Now, commence oohing and ahhing at these masterpieces:

Male and female cardinals (NC State bird):

Chickadees:

A box turtle munching a strawberry:

Mommy bluebird bringing a bug to her babies:

A writing spider:

And a rufous-sided towhee:

Robert spend several months working on building Clara the shelves I wanted for her books.  I'd seen "gutter" shelves before, but Robert wanted to make them himself, from wood, and they look so good.  He loves being able to make things with his hands.  Since Papaw died, Robert has slowly been learning how to use all his woodworking tools and it's a special way of connecting with him and that past.  I love that so much of Clara's room is hand-crafted by people who love her.  The goal was to have her in her big girl room by her birthday, and we came down to the wire, but at about 9:00PM on Sunday night, Robert got those shelves hung.

And TA-DA!  Here's the (mostly) finished product.  I still need to frame a few things for the walls, but it's mostly done.

 So, here's Clara in her first night in her big girl room.  So excited!  And she stayed in her bed all night long.  (Now since then is a different story, but we're working on it....)

 Sweet dreams, my big girl!  We had so much fun making this room for you and I'm glad you love it!