Happy Birthday Will....

And now he's 5!

It's time...

I awoke last night and had somewhat of a panic attack.  My triathlon is in 34 days and I haven't really done much swimming.  At all.

So here we go - I'm off to get myself a good one-piece swimsuit and making plans to start my workout swims tomorrow night.  The Rec Center offers lap workouts from 8:30-9:15 every Wednesday night for $4. 
The description says "This drop in class is available for intermediate and advanced swimmers who need extra help with technique and endurance.  A Water Safety Instructor will coach from the pool deck and provide a work-out and help swimmers with their strokes and turns.  Swimmers must be 18 years old or older and be able to swim 50 yards (1 lap) of the pool."  Well, I can swim 1 lap.....and that's about it.  Then I'd have to rest a few minutes.  Do I qualify?  Will I embarrass the hell out of myself if I go?  I spose I won't know til I try, but....

I have contacted the director about setting up 1-2 private lessons for myself to just get some pointers on breathing/arm control, etc.  I haven't heard back from her yet, so I'm going to explore another option today as well.  Maybe I can get in the water twice a week for the next 4 weeks. 

I think I'm really scared of swimming.  I'm scared of not being good enough, not being able to get better, not enjoying it.  I can swim short distances - 50 yards I spose, and that's about it.  I get going and I feel like I have to swim like a bat out of hell because I start to panic.  I tell myself that's just because I don't feel confident in the water, and with practice I will get there.  The problem is, I actually have to practice.  I can't just rationalize it in my head.  It was that way with running too - I could run about 2-3 blocks and then have to stop because my head was freaking out and telling me I couldn't do it.  With time, I was able to increase the distance and now enjoy my short 3-5 mile runs.  (Enjoy is a relative term....)

So now it's time.  It's time to get wet and see what happens. 

Fun Pictures

Everyone likes pictures...and here's some no one has seen yet - even better. 

AND FYI - the kids DID get up for fireworks last week.  We returned home about 10:45 and were getting jammies on and brushing our teeth.  I always have moments of "It's not worth it to stay up so late for fireworks."  But, you can bet we'll do it again next year. 
It occurred to me that Katie has attended fireworks on the 4th of July every year she's been born.  We even took her with she was 17 days old!  Will missed them his first year - he was almost 1, and we were watching them in the backyard at our home we live in now.  We could somewhat see them at that time....now the trees have grown too tall.  I believe I let him sleep because we were just in the backyard, and he was still waking up 3-4 times a night!  Odds were good he'd wake up for them anyway, but he didn't. 

Katie in her jazz get-up from dance this year. 

Warning to family: We have her dance recital DVD....be ready to watch a bit the next time we see you....

Katie in her ballet outfit.  Her short hair REALLY looked pretty with this one.

The non-profit group that I work with had a photography fundraiser a few months ago and these were some shots that I liked.  It was exactly 2 days before we got Katie's hair cut off.

Always a superhero...there was no sense in trying to get him to wear something else.

Katie has a moment to shine by herself.



Happy 4th of July!

Hope you all are having or had a nice 4th of July.  We are hoping to make it to fireworks tonight....but it's 7:20 and both kids have been sleeping for the last hour.  So they may or may not feel like going at 9:30....we'll see.

WHY are they so tired, you ask?  Here's why......

Instead of hanging around for the parade, we went and visited some friends that have a pool. 

Katie and Will spent a LOT of time swimming and having a great time in the 100+ degree weather!

The water was almost hot.

Not only do these friends let us play in their pool - they also feed us!!

Their dog, Missy is waiting for any leftovers.

Odds and ends

Just a jumble of pictures that I haven't shared yet.....

Katie's birthday party.  She requested a fruit pizza instead of cake, and that was just fine by me!

Will and Katie are taking swimming lessons - they are both doing great!

My favorite new beach.  The sand could be a little softer, but it's a great place to swim!

Ok - Here's an extra Saturday Silly to compensate for my poor effort of a Friday funny yesterday.
It came from http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/mom-takes-childrens-songs-literally


Mom Takes Children’s Songs Literally.


BY Sarah Schmelling

- - - -What do you mean, she’ll get here “when she comes”? That’s not a time. How can I plan around that?
- -And we’ll all have chicken and dumplings? All of us? Even you three vegetarians? Who’s going to be cooking these dumplings anyway? Remember that time I made pierogies? No, I bet you don’t remember that.
- -Okay, someone’s in the kitchen with Dinah. What is this, a guessing game? And no one’s going to be “strumming on the ol’ banjo” in my house. I’m not stupid.
- -You are not a little teapot, honey. You’ve just got my hips. I’m sorry.
- -You’re paying far too much attention to that very, very small spider.
- -No, you can’t put a person in a pumpkin shell. Really, I’m starting to worry about you.
- -Is the old man snoring? Or is he in a coma? Because if he bumped his head and can’t get up we need to call someone. And it’s going to be tricky since it’s raining. And it’s pouring.
- -Well nobody asked you to carry a banjo all the way from Alabama.
- -I don’t care how many of them there are, get the monkeys out of the bedroom!
- -Again with the old man. Tell him to leave your thumb alone. What the heck is “knick-knack”? I thought he was snoring a minute ago.
- -A snowman is marching through town? Are you drunk?
- -What are you talking about, “how I wonder what you are”? It’s a star. You just said it was a star.
- -GET THE BABY OUT OF THE TREE. NOW.
- -What are you doing asking a sheep if it has wool? And I hope that’s not the same lamb that’s been following Mary around.
- -That’s a lot of pressure, telling someone they’re your “only sunshine.” Are your ready to take that step?
- -What? The bridge is falling down? For Christ’s sake stop singing!

Friday Funny

I can't rememer if I've already used this one.....so just in case, you get two today.  They aren't very good, but hell it's better than nothing. :)

The next (insert famous pitcher's name)

Katie and I went camping on Friday night with her Girl Scout troop. While we were gone, John and Will had a boy's night which included a lot of baseball.  John found Will's glove and they played catch and worked on throwing.  Will was to stand and throw the baseball at the tree.  When he showed me the next day - I was surprised at how good he had gotten!  I have a movie to prove it, but am too lazy to upload it at the moment, so I'll try that later this week.

Take note of his good form!

Happy Joe's

It's funny.....when there's not much going on, I have plenty of time to blog - but nothing to blog about. When I'm super busy there's a lot to say and no time to say it. 

I'll start with these birthday pictures of Katie at Happy Joe's Father's Day weekend.  Katie was totally excited to have the entire restaurant's focus on her.  (I should have know.)

Thank you to Mary, Jim, Denise and Wally for celebrating with us!

Since it was also Father's Day, dads got a free sundae.  Wally didn't want his so Will was able to have a little ice cream of his own.

8 Years Old!

Today is Katie's birthday!  Wow.  8 Years old.  It's getting serious now.  I had read that at age 8, girls usually experience their first surge of hormones that can suddenly bring on growth spurts and mood swings.  I think she started that already.  The mood swings, anyway.  Although we always see that around her birthday.   Will usually gets difficult at the half year mark.  At least they're on different rotations.

Our plans for today....Happy Joe's.  We've invited some family and are going to have some pizza and ice cream in true Happy Joe's form.  I was told (I don't really remember) that when I was about 4 or 5....we went to Happy Joe's for my birthday.  All was well until they brought out the free ice cream.  That's the point where they turn on the siren which fills the restaurant and the whole staff gets everyone to sing Happy Birthday while the birthday child stands on their chair.  I. Was. Mortified.  I told my family to NEVER sing that song again and each time we went to Happy Joe's I made sure that they were NOT going to pull that again. 

It's time to pass along that feeling of embarrassment.  Ahhh, tradition.  Be ready for pictures this time.

Friday Funny

Gearing up for the Olympics.....

Tails for reading

We made it to the library after soccer one Saturday and were able to take advantage of their Tails for Reading program.  They had two volunteer therapy dogs to choose from so Katie read to one while Will spent some time with the other one.  Since Will couldn't quite read on his own, the volunteer read to him and the dog.  You can see, the dog was quite interested in the story.  It was about a dog with bad breath.

These kinds of programs are extra beneficial for someone like Katie who is a bit nervous around bigger dogs.  These therapy dogs are trained very well to be quite low-key.  I also have a feeling that they are taken on a monster of a hike before they come to the library because they always look worn out. :)

Katie got a coloring page and a sticker from her dog, and Will got to give his treats using a little toy shovel (great idea....).

Transit of Venus

It's been a little bit of an exciting spring for those of us who like to think about outer space and the stars.  We were able to see part of the solar eclipse a few weeks ago - the kids thought that was kind of cool.  And just last week we went to the Eisenhower Observatory to see Venus travel in front of the sun.  They had a bunch of different telescopes set up with solar filters so that they were safe to view the sun.  Basically they all showed the same thing, but we could also see sun spots as well, which was neat.  They also had viewing glasses for sale for a $1 donation.  I think they could have charged more because they sold out of those within the first 2 hours.  (We were able to get 2 pairs.)  A volunteer mentioned that during the last transit of Venus in 2004, only 40 people showed up for their viewing party.  This one....was a little different.  There were a few hundred easily and that was only while we were there....it went until 10. 

They also had a planetarium set up where you could go inside and see a very realistic projection of the night sky, but it was VERY warm in there and jam packed with people.  We never made it up to the BIG telescope on the roof - there was quite a line and about a 30 minute wait.  So we'll go back in the fall when we can make reservations to be able to look through it at night. 

Team pictures

We got Will's soccer pictures....
pardon the copyrighted words....

Katie's dance pictures were taken the week before these, so I'm thinking they should be on their way too.  In some ways, pictures like these take to long to get back.  You're excited when you take the pictures, and order a few, but then as time goes by and you don't have them you realize that you're fine without them and maybe shouldn't have ordered any.  Oh well, too late now. 

Oh, and guess who's on the lookout for a new puppy......

Yes, I think we are starting to wrap our heads around the idea of a dog.  And by "we", I mean me.  I think we are trying to find a lab/and/or/retriever mix.  Seems to be a safe bet for a dog that gets along well with kids and a spare cat.  For now I'm just peeking at the shelter/adoption sites and see what comes along.  In a few weeks we may try going to a pet adoption event at the pet store.  

I swear, this takes more thought a preparation for me than having a baby!  

Friday Funny

Soccer star

Will is having a good time playing soccer.  He still has to work on not kicking the ball again when it goes out of bounds (in fact the whole team needs work on that!) but he is doing a great job of running and keeping up with the ball. 

Being in the right place at the right time - a good block!

Enjoying the all-important after game snack.

We have 2 more weeks of practice and games, and then the big jamboree/tournament Saturday.  I think we play at 8:30 that day and then again at 12:30.  Hmmm....we may be making a run home for a couple hours.  And Katie and I are camping with the Girl Scouts the night before....we'll see how early we can get up and leave!

Preschool Graduation

No more preschool!  No more paying $200 a month for school! :) 
Will had his last day of preschool the last Friday in May.  They had a very informal ceremony where they got certificates.  We're all excited for kindergarten in the fall!

Will and his class.

Will saying goodbye to his teacher, Ms. Nancy.

My Vacation

Did I mention that I don't have "Pebbles" this week?  This is the first week that I've not had her while the kids are still in school.  So that means M-W-F this week I have 2 1/2 hours all to myself.  On Monday I went for a 7 mile bike ride, showered and got ready all by myself.  Yesterday I went for a run (my fastest 3 mile run in just over 28 minutes!), showered and dyed my hair.  Friday I already have plans for a run as well.  It really is feeling like a vacation.  Not to mention the fact that Will and I can run errands in the afternoon instead of trying to cram everything into 2 hours in the morning.

Will and I also had lunch with Katie at school on Tuesday.  We are having lunch with her again today, but bringing Subway this time.

It's a glimpse into what next year will be like for me.  Katie will be in 3rd grade (all day), Will will be in kindergarten (half days), and "Pebbles" will be in preschool (MWF).  So I will have about 2 hours 3 times a week to myself again!  A nice treat for myself every other day - the first regularly scheduled "break time" in over 8 years. 

My "professional" photo from race day. 

The photographer was sitting on a bridge as you came around a corner. 

One more thing.   Happy Birthday today to my aunt Carol.  She passed away in 2009, and would have been 91 today.  I imagine having conversations with her about my racing this past weekend.  If I close my eyes and am very quiet I can hear her clear as day.

"Oh, my.  Why would you want to do something like that?"

"It just doesn't sound like it would be a good thing to do."

"Don't you think you'll get hurt?"

"Wouldn't it be nicer to just walk?"

And no matter how many reasons I give her, she'll still just sit quietly, shaker her head and disapprove. :) 

It makes me smile.

While it's still fresh

This was the big racing weekend that I'd been looking forward to for a while.  Now it's over and in the books.  There were tons of races this weekend!  It's that time of year I guess - lots of races scheduled while it's still a comfortable temperature at 8 am.  I have the chance to do 1-2 more 5k's before mid-June and then nothing again until August (possibly July, if I'm feeling crazy).

Saturday's 10k was warm.  Why is it whenever I have to run anything over 4 miles, Minnesota decides to have a heat wave.  So it was about 75 and kinda humid at the start of the race.  75% of the race was in the shade of woods and trees, so I really can't complain about that.  But remember a couple posts ago I said something about having "no excuses"....I pondered this over during the run and then I realized - heck, I'm a "runner", I've got excuses for EVERYTHING!

The first mile was pretty much all downhill.  Sounds easy right?  Well it could have been harder, that's for sure, but I don't really like running downhill for that long.  It's hard to keep a normal pace and it's hard on the knees.  But then the next 2 miles were almost all uphill.  Some of it on blacktop trails, some of it on gravel trails.  I'm glad I've had experience running on gravel roads in IA!  At one point near the end of mile 2 I can around a corner and saw a hill that was around a 75 degree incline.  No joke.  There should have been notches in it like a climbing wall.  Most of my "pack" was walking up it, but I jogged up as fast as I could, thinking the faster I go, the faster I'll be at the top.  So I get to the top, round another corner and realize I have another 1/2 mile at least uphill.  Oh crap.  There was nothing to do but laugh about it.

Finally I get to the top near the high school and middle school.  There's a giant windmill up there too.  Want to know why?  Because it's windy as SHIT up there!  At least down in the trench I didn't have to deal with the wind!  So mile 3 to 4 was at the top of the hill and then started heading down again.  Mile 4 was probably the easiest of the whole race because it was in the woods, along a creek, fairly flat.  Mile 5.5 to 6.2 again was almost all uphill.  This time along a busy road, but you could make out the finish line, so you just had to keep going.  My final time was around 1:05:something.  A couple minutes over my ideal time, a few minutes under my "never again" time.  I'm really happy with the finish, and would have never thought it was something I could do 1-2 years ago.

After my race, Will ran in a 0.2 mile kids race - he had a good time and really put a lot of effort into running.  He got a ribbon and may possibly get a t-shirt later.  (We registered late.)  Then Katie ran in a 1.2 mile kids race and got a t-shirt.  Again, she did awesome!  Running isn't something that comes easily to anyone - and Katie gets discouraged by pains in her side when she runs (which I remember all too well), but she kept going.  John even ran with her the last 1/2 mile or so.

On Sunday, I had a 5k for Get Your Rear In Gear - a benefit for colon cancer.  Last year my good friend, Gina, lost her husband to colon cancer so a bunch of friends and family joined a team to honor his memory.  His mom even had shirts made for our team, The Drag'n Fliers. :)  It was a really fun 5k run, followed by a kids race (my kids didn't do this one) and a 5k walk.  So I did another 10k on Sunday, just broken up a bit more!  Again, I was happy with my time - 30 minutes and change.  Makes me really want to push to get under 30 soon.  There were tons of "fliers" on our team though - we had THREE first place finishers in their respective age groups, including Gina herself.  Seriously - she's a force to be reckoned with!

I wasn't too sore yesterday - believe it or not.  I went for a short bike ride after I dropped Will off because I don't have "Pebbles" this week.  It must have helped because today I'm not sore at all. :)

  

It's late and I'm going to bed

...but before I do, I feel like I have to make myself officially set a goal for my 10k this weekend.  And whether you care or not, well you can decide that much.

I have a 10k (6.2 miles) on Saturday.  That will be the longest distance I've ever done and my first race in 8 months.  Here's how I'm breaking down how I expect to finish....

Dream Finish: 60 minutes or less.  Basically, this is an arbitrary number.  It's an hour - a nice round time.

Ideal Finish: 62-63 minutes.  62 would keep me at a 10min/mile pace which is what I seem to do with anything over 3 miles.  I'd be happy with that.

Never running again: 68 minutes or over.  Ok, maybe not "never again", but it will totally ruin my whole day and I'll feel like a loser.

Then on Sunday I have a great 5k run with friends that I'm not doing for a personal fast time, just for fun. (Oh, but I'll totally be watching the clock.)


Now, if you've read this far - and as still interested, I will give you a treat.  I wouldn't normally post this, but I can't help it.  I know that in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't really make a big difference, but it makes me really proud and just darn smiley.  Katie took a cognitive abilities test in February to test to see if she qualified for placement in their Program for Academic Challenge class.  We got the results back a couple of weeks ago and I'm happy to say she kicked butt on that test and has been awarded a place in their class!  So this means that starting next year she will get to participate in extra activities a few times a week.  She's started this semester with the PAC class by reading A Cricket in Times Square and making a cricket habitat complete with live crickets. :)  Again, I know that test scores don't amount to a whole lot, BUT it doesn't mean I can't do a little bragging of my own.......

Happy Mother's Day

A late Happy Mother's Day to everyone out there.  Shouldn't every day be Mother's Day, anyway?  I hope my mom got her e-mail from me.  What a crappy way to say Happy Mother's Day, right?  An e-mail.  Oh well.  Here it is in a blog post too - Happy Mother's Day!  I love you!

This was a busy weekend because we had dance rehearsal Friday night, soccer game Saturday morning following by soccer team pictures.  We went home for a quick lunch, and then had to get ready for the big dance recital of the year.  After Katie's dance recital, we went out to eat.  Mainly because I hadn't had a chance to go to the store in the last 4-5 days and had nothing ready to go at home.  We also kind of figured it would be a Mother's Day supper too. 

Well, I call a re-do on that one because about 10 minutes after I was finished eating, I started to not feel so good.  As we were leaving, we were going to swing by Culver's for some ice cream for the kids, but I had John take me home first because I felt like my supper was going to make a re-appearance.  Sure enough, the minute I got home it all came back up.  I had Parmesan Shrimp and pasta for supper.  I hate throwing up pasta.  This is the second time in 4 months that I've thrown up pasta. 

Don't know what was wrong....but I did feel better after that, just extremely tired for a bit.  So I want another meal out sometime....
On Sunday morning I was able to get a longer run in before it got too hot, and then we went for a bike ride all together.  I also made myself a fruit pizza - because I had a craving for that, and it was super yummy.  The kids were great at cutting up the fruit and arranging it on the crust.  I'm doing all I can to save some to have again after supper tonight. 

Keeping up

I have been doing a good job (if I do say so myself) about running lately.  I've been running 3+ miles on the treadmill twice a week, and a long run 5+ miles on the weekend.  It's been a little over 2 weeks of that and I think I'm going to fare well in my 10k coming up in...let's see....11 days.  I've got one more week of regular running, a long run this weekend, and then I'm going to take it easy next week and just do a couple miles on the treadmill.  I know I could hoof through 6.2 miles without doing this prep stuff, but my goal is not to rack up a fast time - my goal is to not injure myself and I know that if I train steadily I should be ok. 

*** That said...I've been having a pain in the back of my left foot about 3-4 miles in during the last few runs.  I just keep going, hoping it's nothing. :)

So what has helped get me back in "running mode"?  I don't really know - except an impending deadline.  However, a re-vamping of my playlist has helped greatly and I kinda laugh at myself every time I listen to it because it's a pretty odd collection of songs.  I thought I would share with you....

Shuffled up during the run...

• Got Some (Pearl Jam)   I'm almost done with this song, but it has a good steady running beat.
• If It's Love (Train)    Another one I'm about to delete....but haven't yet
• Manhattan (Kings of Leon)
• Dog Days Are Over (Florence and the Machine)    Quite possibly the perfect running song.
• Animal (Neon Trees)   I have to skip this song when it comes on now because I'm quite sick of it.  It's gotta go, but was fun for a while
• Big Wave (Pearl Jam)
• Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise (The Avett Brothers)  Just a nice song
• All I Want (Toad The Wet Sprocket)  Toad is just good stuff anytime
• Good Intentions (Toad The Wet Sprocket )  Again, good stuff
• Rumor Has It (Adele)  Good tempo, love Adele
• Set Fire to the Rain (Adele)  I get out of breath because I have to sing along, but it's worth it
• We're Going to Be Friends (The White Stripes) 
• Sweetest Thing (U2)
• My City of Ruins (Eddie Vedder)  Relaxing, calming

And the best ones yet.....

• Born This Way (Lady Gaga)  The 3 times I've heard this while running, I almost cried.  Chalk it up to adrenaline, surges of excercise chemicals, whatever.  Again, a perfect running song when you're running just for yourself.
• Lonely Boy (The Black Keys)  Just comes on and you know you have to run a little faster
• Rehab (Amy Winehouse)  I realize it's a bit of an ironic choice, but it totally takes my mind off the task at hand.
• Moves Like Jagger (Maroon 5)  My guilty pleasure....

And some that I tried....and so didn't work out.

•  Last Train To Clarksville
• Mary, Mary
• Heart and Soul

The last 3 are all songs by The Monkees (whom I love) - wonderful to listen to when I'm not doing something physically taxing.  Otherwise, totally annoying to me for some reason.

Lots to say

I suddenly have a lot to post about...although none of it very important. If it WAS very important some of you'd know about it already. So I guess it just makes for good blog posts. We had a week of rain. The news said that it has rained every day in May so far.

We had soccer practice canceled last Thursday as well as the game on Saturday. This week should be nice though. I'm not really looking forward to dealing with the parents again. Some are a bit snippy. We have a youth coach (since no parent volunteered) and he's doing a great job. He's 14 and has a bunch of games for the kids to play, and they have fun (which is the most important thing). Anyway, the youth coach couldn't make it to the last game so I was dealing with rotating the kids in. By the second half, we had 2 in tears and wouldn't play, so I was rotating the remaining 4 in and out. But this one mom kept sending her daughter in whenever she felt like it, and it was making me so stinking peeved! Then a few parents made the comment that the kids weren't playing "positions" or whatever - they were just running after the ball. Well, yeah....they're 4. At this stage we're only concerned with teaching them the boundaries of the field and that they should stop kicking the ball when it goes out of bounds. (If ANY of these parents had come to a training session, they would know this...) It baffles me how many parents want their kids to play sports and be on a team, but are unwilling to officially volunteer to help out. I mean heck, if John and I can do it - then anyone can. I need to get some pictures of Will in his soccer uniform because it's pretty impressive!

Katie has a dance recital this Saturday. It's at the big, new high school in their auditorium. So she's excited about being on a real stage. We had dance pictures yesterday in all of her costumes (she has 3) and she was totally adorable - as were all the girls. I think this will be our one and only year of dance....it's been fun, but I don't think it's anything that Katie gets real excited about.

Did you know last Saturday was "Free Comic Book Day"??? I didn't realize it was across the whole country...I thought it was just our local comic book store. (How much I have to learn, huh?) Anyway, Will had been looking forward to it for quite a while so he got dressed up in his batman t-shirt and cape (we couldn't talk him into the whole costume....there's a first time for everything) and headed out. Katie and Will both got a bag of free comics and John got an adult pack as well. I may have pictures coming because the guys at the store took some pictures of Will and another little guy dressed up.

I gotta run to get Will to school. We have one more dance class tonight, then girl scouts. Tomorrow night we have a party at Will's former preschool building. Looks like bath will have to wait til Wednesday. :)

Friday Funny

New butterflies

I splurged this spring and bought some caterpillars. There was a company that specialized in science stuff for kids and I was able to have 5 tiny caterpillars delivered to my door in a plastic cup complete with food for them. Here's what they looked like almost 3 weeks ago.



And here they are a week later....

Once they are all in their cocoons, the directions said to take them out of the cup and hang them in the mesh cage they sent along. It said that there was a paper disk attached to the bottom side of the lid. Simply peel that away, stick a pin in the paper and attach it to the mesh side of the cage. Hmmm, easier said than done. I got a tip from Will's teacher who had also ordered butterflies for their class. She said that they use a bent paperclip and it works well. I was able to transfer all 5 cocoons without any falling off - but it was a little tense. The caterpillars in Will's class are about 5-6 days behind ours. It's funny because Will's teachers say that he has been a wealth of knowledge when it comes to the caterpillars. They said he's pretty much an expert and shares A LOT. :) Yesterday when we came back from Will's field trip we found a butterfly out of it's cocoon. And this morning....we found another one.

There is a paper plate in the bottom of the cage which I put balled up tissues soaked in sugar water. (Per the instructions.)  The red dots scattered here and there are droppings from the butterflies' body.  The instructions said this wasn't blood - but leftover coloring from their wings.  You can see 2 Painted Lady butterflies in this picture - one exercising it's wings and one to the right of him just hanging out.  So far, they do a lot of hanging out.  We will probably keep them until they all appear, and then release them a few days later.  Molly has also done a very nice job of leaving them alone.