Butterfly Parade Then and Now

A very special Kindergarten tradition at my children's school is for them to raise Monarch butterflies from caterpillars and release them "to Mexico" and then parade around town as butterflies.  It is so sweet!  This past week we celebrated Charlie's parade:

Pre-Parade Photo-Shoot

 

Pre-Parade festivities

Charlie's beautiful MALE butterfly

Brotherly-support

 

 



 

 

The Parade Proper

Flashback to 3 years-ago when RJ paraded - notice the butterfly on his head in the last pic

Ahh, this was such a nice experience, I'm enjoying reliving it in the blogosphere!

 



 

Back to School Backpack Sale

I have been wanting to get my soon-to-be-a-Kindergartener a new backpack for some time now.  I got my older son one from L.L.Bean, which I love, because of their 100% satisfaction guarantee.  From their website "Return anything purchased from us at any time.." Boys can be extremely hard on backpacks (or anything really) so this totally makes sense to me. 

I received an e-mail last week about their Deluxe Book packs being 25% off (which they still are) but by the time I had it in my cart, with a monogramming, it was still kind of expensive, even with a 20% coupon and free shipping so I wanted to wait on it.  Also, camouflage is not allowed at the Friend's school but I figured since it was orange and not "typical camo" it would pass, but this was further adding to my ambivalence. Here's the one I was eyeing-up:

 

A few days later (today), and still without a backpack, I decided to go back to the L.L. Bean's website and low and behold, there were three backpacks that were on sale for $14.96.  These are the "original" backpacks not the "deluxe" but they are better for a 5 year-old anyway.  I chose the perfect backpack for him, with his name embroidered on it, with free shipping and a 20% off coupon and it came to $20, an unbeatable price!  On the left is the special one I chose (yay!).  The other two are also available for the same price:

 



The Butterfly Parade

In my son's Kindergarten class, they have been studying the life cycle of Monarch butterflies since the first day of school.  The school orders the larvae(?), grows them, tags them with tiny little stickers as part of Monarch Watch ,a program that studies the migratory behavior of these beautiful creatures, and then sets them "free" by having the children walk through the town (dressed-up as butterflies) with the butterflies on their heads to give the butterflies a "Head Start" on their migratory journey. Here is a very ecstatic RJ:

RJ was so excited about this event that he slept with the black shirt and "cozy" black fleece pants rolled-up in his bed for the days preceding the release...it was the best $10.69 I've ever spent!