Save the Ladybugs, Save the World

The heat is on here in the desert and that is precisely why I had what I thought was a fairly simple request for Mother's Day this year. That request was that we go nowhere (because we have been so darn busy) and that Joe get the pool up so I can take the kids swimming and relax on the raft. That request turned out to be not so simple on many fronts and I won't bore you with the details. Needless to say, Joe jumped through a lot of hoops and put in a lot of work to grant my request and for that I am very grateful to him.

My Mother's Day actually started on Saturday, when after an 8am t-ball game, 12 noon hair appointment and 2pm birthday party, Joe agreed to take me out to dinner at the Macaroni Grille on the way home. The meal that included pasta and dessert was yummy and cheat-worthy but the best part was watching the kids faces light up when they remembered they could color and draw on the tablecloth. I think we counted at least 9 racetracks that Jake had created before we left and Jadyn drew a bed and bowl of milk for her Mama and baby toy kitties that accompanied us to dinner.

Here are some pictures of the kids helping Daddy fill up the pool earlier in the week:

After they got out, we all quickly realized it's still a little early in the season for an evening swim. They were fine in the pool, but freezing when they got out:



Now by this point you may be wondering what Mother's Day and the pool have to do with saving ladybugs. Well I am not sure why but the ladybugs are out in full force this spring, more so then I have ever seen them before. In fact, we can't get the kids to concentrate at t-ball practice because they are so busy collecting ladybugs on their hands and then watching them fly away. Joe said when he was watching Jadyn during practice on Friday, he stopped counting after Jadyn had found 20 or so ladybugs. It's crazy!

Well Sunday, it also became clear that the ladybugs are attracted to the pool and so we were continually finding them floating on top of the water. It became the kids mission to "save" the ladybugs by retrieving them from the water and putting them back on dry land. Of course I wish I could properly convey the drama that Jadyn in particular infused into this task because it made it all the more amusing but by the time we got out of the pool, the kids had "rescued" 32 ladybugs and decided that the last ladybug they helped would like to come inside the house and play with their toys. They then proceeded to "show" the ladybug their toys and give it a ride on both a hot wheel and a train car before I proclaimed that the ladybug needed to go back outside and find its friends. I figured at that point it had been tortured enough.

Here is a few pictures of Jadyn rescuing a ladybug:



And finally here we are multi-tasking as this picture serves as both a Mother's Day memory AND photographic documentation of our first swim of the season:

I never did get to relax on the raft. The kids were too interested in climbing aboard and tipping it over but that really doesn't matter. What does matter is that we had a great time in the pool together. I hope all my Mommy friends and family had a wonderful Mother's Day. Thanks to Joe and the kids and all the well-wishes I received, I know I did.