Bugs are beautiful. Bugs are magical. Bugs are incredibly, fantastically cool.
Or, so goes the world according to Tyler and Abbey.
Right now, bugs, of any kind, are a very hot topic in our home. The kids are obsessed with them – and love finding new ones wherever, and whenever, possible.
My kids love bugs so much that they even asked my dear old friend, “Carrie the Camel”, to send pictures of some of the bugs that she sees over in the UAE. Carrie is always accommodating when it comes to fun-filled requests, so she happily snapped a few photos of these interesting creatures.
I tried Googling them – but after twenty minutes, I gave up. Anyone want to take a guess? The red one looks like a Milkweed bug – but I’m just guessing…and I’m not even sure if they have Milkweed bugs in the UAE…
But, I digress…so, back to bugs that live in New York…
Currently, the bugs du jour at our house are the crazily-colored Ailanthus Webworm Moths. Instead of your good ‘ole boring brown, gray or dusty white moths, these little critters are a striking medley of tangerine, lime-green, and black. For some reason, they have set up camp on our front porch and the kids look forward to seeing them each morning. After Daddy “honks his horn”, the kids turn their attention to their newfound friends and “boop them on the butts”, which causes them to fly…right into our faces.
I didn’t think that any bug would be able to top their beloved Webworm Moths. But last weekend, while we were out “bug hunting”, we came across not one, but two, American Dagger Moth Caterpillars, scampering across our driveway! These fuzzy little guys were the cutest caterpillars I have ever laid eyes on, and they were so soft!
Tyler and Abbey had a blast watching these caterpillars crawl up over the brick steps and onto our stucco house. Abbey even tried to share her chocolate donut with one, but I had to put the kibosh on that!
The kids also found this brightly-hued garden spider hanging out in my Lily bed. (At least I’m hoping it’s just a plain old garden spider!) This spider was none too pleased when I stuck my camera is its face – but once it realized that I wasn’t going to tear down its web, it unfurled its legs and posed prettily for me.
And just this morning, Tyler and Abbey came tearing into the house yelling at me to “Grab the camera!” Lucky for me – they had found another interesting bug. This time it was a Daddy Long Legs – and oh boy, did it have some long legs!
The funny thing about all of this “bug hunting” is that I’m actually quite squeamish about bugs. However, I try very hard not to let the kids know about my own weird phobias. For if they can see the beauty in things that most people find icky, then God gave me two truly wonderful little beings!
So for now, we continue with on with our “bug hunts”…happy hunting!
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