We're Alive!

I have been a terrible blogger lately!  I hate that because I really want Kate to be able to read this one day and have some kind of idea of what she was like when she was like when she was a little girl.  I swear, it starts today (someone needs to hold me to this)!

New news in our lives....we are expecting a baby boy in June!  We are super excited and Kate can't wait to take on her role as a big sister.  For now, we're calling him "baby boy Oehlke" because we haven't decided on an official name.  We have narrowed it down to a few choices, but we'll see what happens in the end (basically we'll see who wins on the day the hospital makes us choose a name)!

In Kate news....there is a ton of new stuff!  What is Kate not into?  She loves to play outside, read, do puzzles, go to preschool, talk about her baby brother, look at insects, ask tons of questions, play with friends, play with the dogs, look at insects, dance, go to gymnastics, sing, make up words, make up stories, and, did I mention look at insects?  The girl loves bugs!  She has two different series of lifecycle books, this is when I first noticed her bug interest peaking.  She wanted us to read the ladybug and butterfly books every single night before bed.  I now know more about these creatures than I ever imagined!  For her birthday, we thought it would be a good idea to get her a butterfly habitat.  Definitely the best idea ever!  She has raised her first (of many, I'm sure) bunch of larvae, which became caterpillars, which became pupas, which eventually turned into butterflies.  It was so neat watching Kate experience this rather than just read about it.  We released the butterflies on a warm day and had a few newly-planted bright flowers ready for them (after all, we didn't want them to starve right when they left their nice habitat).  All seven of the butterflies stopped at the flowers before flying away.  Here are some pictures of our recent venture into the world of insects.

The proud scientist!  I think they were still in the larva state at this point.

All wrapped up in the cocoons (I know, it's pretty gross looking)

Watching the first one dry off its wings.

A couple of them flying around in their habitat.

The afternoon of the release!

We finally got some good pictures once we opened the lid!

They didn't want to fly away at first.

So that's what Kate's been up to lately.  I'll create a post later about her 3rd birthday, only about two months late....