Butterfly Girl

Some friendships can easily withstand the tests of time and distance.  Those, at least in my life, have been the best friendships I've ever had.  During my 11th grade year, after returning from a year out of the country, I reconnected with my two best childhood friends and met several new ones that formed a group of 6.  We always did so much together, passing notes in the halls, going to concerts, joining the same clubs, hanging out at each other's houses, and even traveling to England together for a school trip.  We dubbed ourselves The England 6. 

Of course, after high school, time and distance got in the way of gatherings.  Contact became sparse.  But the friendships endured, and whenever those connections get made again after time, it's like picking up where we left off.  Well, with lots of fun stories to tell in-between.  One of our friends moved out of the country, and has been there for the better part of the last 20 years.  She returns home periodically, but I've always had difficulty getting up to see her at those times.  Fortunately, this past weekend, I packed Sammi into the car and we drove up to her parents' house, where all six of us were able to get together on Saturday, for the first time in about 26 years.  Being only 1/2 hour from my own parents' house, I left at one point to take Sammi there for dinner and bed, and return back to the party for a few more hours to talk. 

One friend, as a hobby and side-business, has a butterfly tent that she brings to fairs, children's events, etc., and she was so, so nice to bring it with her on Saturday.  Samantha had been talking about the butterflies for days leading up to it, but she shut down in exhaustion when finally faced with the opportunity.  With the promise that we would leave to go back to my father's house directly afterwards, she finally consented to go into the tent, and provided me one near butterfly casualty (tired little girls think you can grab them), and a stellar photo op. 

Yes, the wings are on upside-down.  My bad...

 



Two butterflies!  They're sucking Gatorade from a cotton swab.  Samantha kept trying to blow them off the stick, like a bubble wand.



 

Sammi's new butterfly clip.

The perfect hair accessory.



Sadly, this little guy didn't make it through the day.  Who knew that different types of butterflies had different feeding habits?