They’re Coming…

Here on the East Coast, we’re expecting cicadas this summer. A lot of them, apparently. They’re the locust-like insects that emerge from the ground once every 13- or 17-years (depending on their “brood”) to fill the air with buzzing and our trees with their shed skin. My mom used the occasion to break out the book she made with me back when I was 5, the first time I experienced a cicada summer.

My little book is mostly newspaper clippings like this…

…but there are a couple pics of young me proudly (bravely?) holding some cicadas.

Then – here comes the kind of gross part – it includes some “preserved” cicada shells. Yep, that’s them just squished in some saran wrap. An entomologist I am not.

Although my preserved wings came out a little bit nicer.

My mom even added a page to the book 17 years later (in 2004, when I was 22) when that brood of cicadas re-emerged. Still got that cicada bravery!

I’m hoping when this cycle comes to Richmond this summer that Clara share a similar fascination and bravery with them. Heck, maybe we’ll make a little book of our own…

Strawberry Fields

Last week Clara’s preschool class had a field trip to pick strawberries. Clara thought it was pretty darn awesome.

After a quick hayride, each kid got a small basket to fill up with any ripe berries they could find.

The trip actually got delayed a week because the strawberries weren’t ripe enough yet. There were still a lot of green berries, but it made the hunt for the red ones more fun. Plus, there were weird mutant ones in there too. Woah.

For Clara the strawberries were really secondary to getting to hang out with her pal Sam.

So it was fun to see their budding friendship with our own eyes.

I mean, c’mon. How cute are they?

They probably would’ve stayed out there all day had we not had a class picnic starting back at the farmhouse.

I’m not sure if this was a “this is so much fun!” and “I don’t want to leave!” face. Either way, it perfectly captured the trip.

And as if the berries weren’t enough, there was straw to play in. Maybe the next field trip could just be to a haystack…

We all enjoyed strawberry smoothies when we got home too. Yum.

Three

Someone hit the big 0-3 this week and that same someone is pretty excited about it!

As you may have read over on Young House Love, to culminate this year’s photos we again let Clara help design a custom “fabric” for her birthday picture. This time around it meant letting her paint directly on two yards of white cotton fabric.

And as usual, we wanted to share some of our favorite outtakes with you guys. Like this one, where we asked her how old she was going to be. Pretend you don’t see seven of those fingers.

Here’s her Home Alone pose.

There was also a nice amount of marveling at the glorious mess that she made on her shirt.

And a whole lotta swag.

I wish I could remember how exactly this pose happened. Whatever it was, I’m sure it was some mix between dancing and making a dramatic exit. Wait a minute, is this crunking?

We also convinced her to sit down for a few photos (there was no fear of a little paint on the pants at this point).

And apparently no fear of a little paint on the face either.

We also realized (too late) that it would have been cuter sans Crocs, so we snapped a few barefoot pictures at the end…

I know I’m biased but I’m pretty sure she’s the coolest kid on the planet.

 Happy third birthday beansie!