One-Yard Wonders projects

Monday, October 7, 2013

Intruder in the Children's Room...

Now before you worry about that title, please look at the intruder in question:


He is a deadly killer, but only if you're an insect. ;) On Sunday, I went into the kids' room to pick up laundry and start packing up toys, and I saw something sitting on the top of their curtains. From a distance, I thought it was a plastic praying mantis -- something Shawn had put up there to freak out poor Bo (who screams like a wee little girl whenever he sees spiders or other creepy crawlies). Upon closer inspection, I realized it was real. But I still thought it was Shawn was playing a trick on the boys with the body of a dead insect. He's known to do that. There are a couple of cicada skeletons in Violet's stroller, just waiting for the day they'll be set on Bo's dinner plate or placed on his shoulder when he's not looking... Poor Bo.

Back to the mantis. Mazy was in the room with me, and he offered to take his big shark pillow and touch it to see if it moved. He reached up and sure enough, that praying mantis was alive and kicking! Well, actually he was quite sluggish. I think he was either cold or dying or both.

He was pretty big though and I didn't want his death on my hands. So I had Mazy run down to the porch to get our butterfly net. I was able to successfully get the net over the praying mantis and convince him to walk down into it so I could carefully close it until I got him outside. Mazy, Violet and I released him into our flowerpot of geraniums, where Mazy says he could catch honeybees and other insects who might be interested in the nectar.

Strangely, this is the third or fourth praying mantis we've seen at our home this summer. He was the only one IN our home though, all the rest were out in the yard. I wonder if praying mantis like dry weather... Very curious.

In other news, vacation is coming!! Only 2.5 work days left until I get a week and a day off! Whoohooo! Hooray! Yahhoooo! Yipppeee!

We're heading to Minnesota to a lake house for a couple days and then to the farm for some harvest and orchard fun. I'm really, really looking forward to some time with the kids, and no computers!!!

We've been going on family walks each night. The days are definitely getting shorter... It's quite dark when we return home at 7:30. I'm thinking we probably need to get some reflective gear because part of our walk is on a road with no sidewalks. And we live on the East Side -- there are some crazy, crazy drivers over here...

Well, the dishwasher just finished and there are two huge baskets of clean clothes that need folded and lunches to be made and leftovers to put away (we had Indian tonight. It was delicious!). I hope you all had a great Monday and enjoyed the beautiful weather that I only saw through the windows... Boo!


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