Graceful

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I just can't resist a butterfly photo op!  It's exciting to see multiple eastern tiger swallowtails as well as other insects on the butterfly bushes at Donnie's house each day.  I hope you enjoy the daily as well as these other shots.

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Here I got incredibly lucky and got two of them in one shot.  This pair kept dancing together on the bushes as well as throughout the yard.  I could even hear their wings flapping at one point.

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A shot of Joey and Johnny wearing new shirts I got at the local thrift store the day before.  Johnny loves green:-)

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Braces

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Johnny got braces yesterday at Zaytoun Orthodontics.  I was really worried about how it was going to go, but Tetyana (I hope I spelled that right) did an awesome job with him, and he sailed through it just fine:-)  I was thrilled, and so was he.  I just love the picture of her and him after they were done so had to share.

Below is Johnny drawing a Pokemon, don't ask me which one, from a book he got from Aunt Faith for his birthday.  Thanks!

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Johnny also received a Wall-E book from the Vollmer Family that he was thrilled about.  He loves robots!

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Below is just me playing around with a flower shot:-)  I guess I'm feeling colorful this week.

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Butterfly Dream

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Yes, I'm posting another butterfly shot.  I took it yesterday and pp'ed it.  The butterflies were out there in full force again but for some reason the 10 minutes I went out to shoot they took a break and flew off for a while.  So, I didn't get as many shots to choose from as I wanted.  I picked this one for the bokeh.  I felt like tinkering with the shot, and this is what I ended up with.

I also took this shot of a writing spider.  You can see a bit of the writing at the bottom of the picture.

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This farther out shot taken from the other side shows even more of the web.

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Follow the Leader

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I was back taking butterfly pics at Donnie's house yesterday.  I really think the shot below is better than the one I posted for my daily yesterday.  I like the angle better as well as the purple in the bokeh.  Oh well.  Instead of posting two nearly identical shots, I played around with this shot a bit.  Fun stuff I think, but I feel like both the daily and the other 'neon' shot are still lacking something.  Oh well, I enjoyed the experimentation.

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More Butterflies

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The beautiful butterfly bushes at Donnie's house that his sister Gale planted last year are doing great, and I was delighted to take some swallowtail butterfly pics on them yesterday.  I know...it's yet another butterfly shot...but it was what I was motivated and able to shoot.

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Madi stopped by yesterday to give Johnny a birthday gift.  She picked out and wrapped herself several Hot Wheels Color Change cars.  Johnny was quite pleased.  I really liked this trio shot.

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Here's a picture of Johnny's brownie cake with Happy Birthday candles and a few pokemon cake topper figures.  I pulled this from the video that's below.

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Video We're exercising Johnny's right eye muscles with the left eye patch.  No need for concern.

Mystery Dragon

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First let me start off by wishing Johnny a happy 8th birthday today!  We celebrated last night because today is the first day of the boys' new school year (year round), and I felt it would be too hectic to celebrate today.  He's into Pokemon and likes Wall-E and received a few gifts on those themes.  I made organic brownies, and we each had just one.  It was the first sweet in over 3 months.  Interesting how the kids accepted that it was a real treat instead of just one more sweet in the long list of sweets.  Progress!  I had trouble uploading the brownie/singing happy birthday video. I'll share tomorrow.  Here's one picture of him with his brownie.

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My daily is a dragonfly picture that I took Saturday.  I cost me 6 mosquito bites, so I had to post it.  I've never seen this variety before, and after spending 30 minutes trying to ID it, I still don't have one.  I posted to BugGuide.  If I hear back I'll update this text.  OK, it's a Blue-Faced Meadowhawk.

The hummers are back in full force at my house.  The light is always so low in my yard:-(  I snapped this picture just out the kitchen window anyway.  Darn stick in the way...  Female rebuy throated as far as I know.

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Butterfly Beauty

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Donnie and I went to Wilkerson Farms yesterday to buy some more grass fed beef.  As I've said before, Carrie has an excellent butterfly garden out front of zinnias and coneflower.  There were at least 5 swallowtails fluttering around plus a bunch of smaller butterflies too.  I call it butterfly heaven.  So, besides buying the meat, I went crazy with my camera taking pics in her front garden.  Thanks, Carrie, for letting me take these pics!

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