HERE COMES THE SUN.....

Saturday afternoon we finally saw the sun!!! Since the lawn hadn't been mowed and any weeds picked for several weeks we headed out for some much needed yard work. I have to admit that not having my own house makes me really unmotivated to do yard work and gardening - so unlike me. After the work was done the playing began. Madi had made a list of things to do outside - including riding bikes, pulling weeds, jumping, having a treat, etc. She roped Kev and Cooper into her little game and they proceeded to do everything on the list from 1-10. The kids really needed to get outside and burn off some energy after being cooped inside for almost two weeks of non-stop rain. Apparently Sydney hasn't seen a year like this one in almost ten years. The water is much needed. Normally it rains only once the entire month of December.

After the list was done and the chores were done Madi wanted to catch a lizard. So in the hunt around the yard we happened upon several new spider webs with our favorite garden spider in them. I actually don't know it's real name, but we call it the X-spider. You can see why in the picture. We actually saw one with several cocoons in his web already and he was preparing his next meal. It was fascinating, and I have to admit I have never seen a spider do that before in the "wild". Cooper and I stood there and watched him for a long time. We just kept finding more and more spiders, some even had babies by their side. The fascinating thing about this spider is it's web. It has four little "curly-q's" that come out of the center and he sits in the middle. No matter what you do to the web, apart from ripping it apart, it doesn't move. I never thought I would say that I thought a spider was cool. I am not a huge fan, except I know how great they are at keeping the bug population at bay and for that I am very grateful.

Now, onto the lizard hunt. I was actually laughing at my "tough" husband. He put gloves on in order to catch these little lizards. Although, I have to admit I wasn't sure if I wanted to catch one with my bare hands either. I was thinking of a friend of Cooper's at Church who brings bugs and lizards around with him everywhere. He is not afraid, yet us grown-ups are a bit. We found several, but they were too fast. My favorite was this one who found a nice hole in the bricks of the house to hang out until we left him alone. Kev was finally successful in finding and catching a little lizard - whom Madi named "Lizzie". Her and I picked some leaves off of the trees to make him home more comfortable and he stayed in the bug catcher the rest of the day. That night Madi decided to let him go so that he could find some food. It was a great afternoon and we were able to get some much needed sunlight and fresh air!