We love summer! The bright sunshine, the garden of flowers buzzing with bees and butterflies flitting in and out, and so many cloudless days bring many opportunities for free play outside and that is what children do here at my house. PLAY! Whether it is play in the sand, water or just enjoying the green grass and hot sun, it is wonderful to be a child and play with joyful abandon in the summer time! Sharing bubbles and a Popsicle with your little friends or spending time concocting potions together during a water day, help to encourage camaraderie and laughter. Having a carnival filled with sweet fun and games or maybe just playing in a giant sandbox filled with hidden treasures will spark the imaginations and fantasies of children and allows for uninterrupted discussions like whether the ocean can really be heard inside that mysterious shell or maybe if pirates hid those pretty agates and "diamonds" down in the sand!
​Allowing ample time for free play creates an atmosphere of happiness and pleasure for children that makes the long days at childcare something to enjoy and look forward to instead of dread.
Watching the summer pass away is always sad for me, but the images of the children I have watched grow and play that year will always stay in my heart. And my hope is, that the memories that summers at Rugrats have created will stay with those children forever as well! 

At my house, daycare is about relaxing and playing all day. Most of our summer days are spent outside enjoying the flowers and beautiful sun. One of the ongoing summer activities is "butterfly watching" and the children are very good at identifying the many different butterflies that float in and visit us in our backyard, such as Cabbage Whites, Skippers, Gray Hairstreaks and Western Tiger Swallowtails.
Over the past 2 summers, we have added in a very special activity that (hopefully) will be part of my childcare for years to come. Last summer, I planted milkweed to try and lure in the elusive Monarch Butterfly and it sure did! Within just a short 2 weeks of planting it, there was a female butterfly laying eggs on the leaves! Last year we raised 7 Monarch caterpillars into adult butterflies. This was a very unique and wonderful experience for the kids as well as for me!
The Monarch Butterfly population in the Willamette Valley has dwindled down significantl due to the loss of its only food source, and it is now a rare and special gift to get to see a Monarch Butterfly in its wild and free state.
This year we helped raise 29 Monarchs to adulthood!! And on August 1st, we released 7 adult butterflies all at once into our backyard! This last generation of butterflies may even migrate to Mexico and overwinter there! Next summer we will see more Monarch females come and lay eggs at our house and we will be ready to feed and care for the cute hungry caterpillars that hatch out on our milkweed! We watch them get fatter and fatter and then, when they are all doe eating, they crawl to the top of the cage to form a "J" right before they turn into a beautiful green chrysalis with gold spots! Then they sleep inside for about 2 weeks  and we watch for the black of their wings to begin to show through. And then "POP" out they hatch!
At Rugrats, we now play a very proud role in helping to encourage the redistribution of the beautiful Monarchs around the Corvallis area, while we also get the rare treat of seeing and enjoying this "King of the Butterflies" as it comes to visit us during the warm and sunny months of summer!
Maybe our Monarchs will come and visit your yard next summer too:)