from the rice cache.

So not really from the cache...this was only yesterday but too silly not to share!

Fletch truly is some pup!

Love, us.

busy, busy week!

So Rick was out of town the whole week. I thought I would get used to it but I haven't one bit! I am so glad I have Fletch to hang out with!

This weekend we worked on my dad's birthday present (it was on the 19th but he and my mom were in Key West all week).

Since my parents did all those crazy renovations on their house (I think it has been about 4 years now) my Dad has talked about wanting a post with signs and milage pointing to all his favorite places. Well, finally we made one!

Colors mixed, base down.

Free-hand painted by the talented rices. I have to say I was quite impressed with our skills.

My handy-man husband.

Our friend Matt came over to help us!

Rick teaching Matt how to use power tools!

The finished product that we will be putting in the yard soon!

As for this week... Although Rick is going to be gone once again... I do have an exciting week!

Tuesday: tickets to see Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy (Thanks StyleWeekly - I won them!) with Careyann (Rick's youngest sister)
Wednesday: donating my hair to Locks of Love for the 2nd time! Goodbye long hair!!
Thursday: My birthday!! Dinner with my folks and I get my top secret birthday surprise!!
Friday: Have the day off from school... don't know what I will do but I know it will be fun!

So sad that Rick won't be around for my exciting birthday week. But I am sure I will still have a great time.

His birthday is coming up on May 11th.. he will be out of town for that too! :(

As for the month of May, we have lots to look forward to!

May 9: The Rice Birthday Bash (cookout for our birthdays)
May 11: Rick's birthday; my brother comes to town for a weekish
May 16: Crawfish Boil and my grandparents will be in town from Maryland
May 30: Our friend from pdx will be in town for about 2 weeks

I hope this finds everybody happy healthy and staying cool in this hot weather!

Love,
your about-to-turn-a-year-older richmond rices.

fletch is getting big!

So the first week without Rick wasn't nearly as bad as expected. He was only gone until Thursday! Which was definitely a pleasant surprise. The bad thing was that Fletch started to get used to the schedule we had so it sort of threw things off last weekend. I think it was going through a "protect my house" kind of mentality and did not appreciate Rick leaving his "scent" all over the place.

This week Rick didn't have to go out of town. The place where his work was, was close enough that they didn't have to stay at a hotel. I think this has helped Fletch having both of us around. But Rick does leave on Monday morning for 4 days so we will see how that goes!

Don't know if I mentioned it before...
We learned about Life Cycles a few weeks ago. This included egg-baby chick-hen/rooster, egg-tadpole-frog, seed-plant and egg-caterpillar-chrysalis-butterfly. Well, part of our preschool program is to have live butterfly eggs! So over the last few weeks our caterpillars hatched, ate and ate and ate until they formed their chrysalids and over last weekend they emerged into butterflies! All 10 of them! On Tuesday, we released them because quite honestly I am not interested in explaining death to my 3/4 year olds!

Say "BUTTERFLY"

Opening our habitat...

Absolutely one of the coolest moments, my kids were in awe!

That speck about the trees is one of our butterflies!

On a different note...

We had our first vet visit today! Fletch has gained 7 pounds since we got him. I was a little concerned that he wasn't eating enough, but apparently that was unnecessary. I guess the Iams bag says to give him too much food!

After the vet, Fletch and I went with my friend, Meredith and her dog Maddy to Barker Field. It was Fletch's first time and boy did he have fun!

He was very nervous, as it is very overwhelming to see all those dogs for the first time. But he got comfortable and even play fought with a few dogs. He was so worn out he fell asleep in the car on the ride home and is now taking a nap on his favorite blanket!

Fletch playing in his favorite place, the leaves!

Sleepy puppy! He looks so old in this picture! :(

"Stop taking pictures of me!"

Down for the count!

Well, that is all in our extremely exciting rice world. Hope this finds you all happy, healthy and enjoying the sunshine!

Love,
your lazy-saturday richmond rices.