Sept 1-12, 2012 Renos At Teresa's & Giant Swallowtail Butterfly.

The first week in September, the girls spent a week in Chatham with their cousins. 

While they were away, Marcel and I had a chance to paint their rooms as a surprise.

Henny came down for about a week to help with painting, repairing and finishing off the rooms with trimming.  
                    Marcel came down whenever we needed him. Usually with trimming and big repairs.

After a week, Jennie was kind enough to pick up the girls and bring them home. 
Erin was ecstatic with her new room. The blue colors she picked out herself. 
She was flying to the top of the bed.  The camera could not keep up with her speed!
The bunk beds was also a surprise.

 Janice Gabnai:   The colours are beautiful Erin! I love your new bed!

• Alida Hoogstad:   Love, love, love these girls. All three of them.

  
  
• Alida Hoogstad And you too Henny.

  
  
• Teresa Hoogstad-Galt:  Thank you so much mom, dad and aunt Henny. The girls love the rooms.
  
  

  Now to keep them clean. *sigh*

  
  
• Brenda Marie Galt:  Great job grandma :)

  
  
• Alida Hoogstad:  Thanks Brenda. Miss you a lot.

  
  
• Brenda Marie Galt:  I miss you a lot too Ill come visit soon.

  
  
• Alida Hoogstad:   That would be great Brenda. It's grandpa's 65th birthday this Wednesday.  I

    

  already told Teresa whenever she comes down for that, then perhaps you can join us. 

  
  

  She can't make it on his birthday, gems starts on Wed. Love you.

  
  
• Brenda Marie Galt:  Yea, I'll get in touch with her and find out 

  
  

  when she is headed to your place for

  
  

   his bday and I'll see if she'll pick me up.  Love you too.

Grinning from ear to ear.  Kelly-Lynn loves the new room and the purples she picked out

• Janice Gabnai:   I love the colours that Kelly-Lynn picked out! Nice job ladies!

  
  
• Season Leigh:   Looks good KD!!!  Love the two tones!

  
  
• Amy Hoogstad:   Love it!

  
  
• Alida Hoogstad:   Amy..The room or the ladies?

  
  Amy Hoogstad:   Both, of course!

  
  

Kelly-Lynn painting her table white.  

I recruited my sister Henny to help paint. She stayed a week. Could not have done it without her.

Janice Gabnai:   Henny, you know better than visiting Alida if she has a can of paint around! Beautiful job!

Teresa sorting through a huge pile of markers to throw out the old ones.
Erin in the back touching up the walls.

Janice Gabnai:   Have fun Teresa! Oh the memories!

Erin painting a little table for her bedroom.
 A gorgeous blue to match the color on her wall.

• Janice Gabnai:   Wow! Does Erin ever look like Kelly-Lynn! Beautiful young ladies!

  
  
• Alida Hoogstad:   Yes she does. Especially without her glasses.

  
  

Giant Swallowtail Butterfly.  Second time we saw a swallowtail. 
The largest butterfly in Canada.  From 3.5"-4.5".   Beautiful. 

Swallowtail on a butterfly bush.  It is considered sporadic and rare in Canada, except in southwestern Ontario, where it can be commonly encountered at Point Pelee, Pelee Island, and a few other locations where the foodplants grow. 

Lantana flowers in my garden. 

                                     The swallowtail caterpillar has the distinct appearance of a bird dropping.
                                         The Gas plant in the flower bed was covered with these caterpillars.

A false head is forming. 

Now we see a snake like appearance with fake eyes. 

The caterpillar's true head is visible under the lip. 

Eastern Grey Tree Frog on our family room window.The grey tree frog,  has the chameleon-like ability to change its colour.
This one seems to be green.  

For several weeks, the tree frogs sat on the window eating bugs. This is another one.  The grey tree frog has “warty” green, brown or grey skin with large darker blotches on the back. Like many tree frogs, this species has large suction-cup-like toe pads. It has a white patch under each eye and is bright yellow-orange under the thighs. Adults may reach a length of 2.25".