My Girl

My Girl is having her birthday today but yesterday we had our celebration. Cowgirl had to leave in the afternoon so MyGirl planned some fun activities we could all do before she left. Grandma and Grandpa came, Daddy took off work, and LittleBuddy even got to play hooky from school. Then after we dropped Cowgirl off at the airport, we came home for the dinner of choice, which was Mexican Haystacks, and this cake. For two weeks she kept on showing me this cake on Pinterest, so I gave it a go, and it turned out. Yeah! (I've not always been successful  - no more homemade ice cream cakes.)

 Lemon cake with raspberry jam filling, vanilla buttercream frosting and raspberries on top. Yum!

 We had three stops on our day's itinerary. Even though this brother didn't love this stop, he loves her a lot and still made the most of it too.

 One was the Celestial Seasonings Factory Tour up in Boulder. It lasts 45 minutes and they don't let you take pictures inside, so here are some outside pictures.

 Zinger Lane was cute. We learned that Sleeptime is their number one selling tea, with Chamomile and Peppermint coming in at 2nd and 3rd. The smells of peppermint was almost overwhelming. It has to be kept in its own double steel plated room so its smells don't contaminate the other teas. We saw how they mix the teas, package them, and wrap them for shipment.

 They give you these lovely hair nets right after they tell you no pictures on the tour, so this is as much as I could get inside. Like I say, the boys were good sports. . . haha. Afterwards there is a nice gift shop with boxes of tea that are much cheaper than at the grocery store, so we stocked up, and I was happy to be able to pick up some Gingerbread Spice, as that is usually only found at the holidays, but its wonderful for an upset stomach so I like to keep it around.

 Another of our stops was the National Center for Atmospheric Research - NCAR. It also has a free museum and was very interesting. Here Cowgirl shows us how clouds are formed.

 BigBuddy looking at how tornadoes are formed.

 I wish I would have taken a photo of the largest size hail they have found. It was larger than a grapefruit and quite jagged. . . fascinating . . . found in Kansas in 1970. We ate lunch at their cafeteria which was tasty before heading to our next adventure.

 In Westminster, Colorado, is a Butterfly Pavilion. However, they also have other areas. One is an aquarium. Clown fish are MyGirl's favorites.

She also enjoyed touching a starfish.

 Only the boys were brave enough to let a tarantula climb on them. Her name was Rosie.

 Both boys were excited for the opportunity. . . the girls on the other hand - no money would have convinced them it was a good idea, nor their mother!

Truly the highlight, though, was the butterflies, and we spent quite a while in this humid environment.

 They would land wherever they wanted, and crawl onto fingers or shirts.

 There were a large variety, some coming from as far as Sumatra and Malaysia.

 Of course, sometimes it wasn't too fun to have them land on your head, but others close-by would fan them away.

 BigBuddy managed to attract two at a time.

 I just love their colors and variety.

 MyMike giving one a free ride.

 This butterfly loved my mother. He would fly around her and then come right back to the same place.

 I also loved the beautiful vegetation.

 Not often we get to see a hibiscus in Colorado!

 Unique shapes.

 These ones were the largest and most prolific of all we saw.

These were my favorites. Loved the coloring and how nicely they posed for my pictures ;-)

My girl loved her day.  Hard to believe she has grown up so quickly! She went to Young Adults for the first time two Sundays ago. . . ready to make the bridge and find more friends her age. We wish her every happiness always!