Raising Praying Mantis

During bug week, Evin's grandpa sent him a Praying Mantis kit and our mantis finally arrived!

We also got some flightless fruit flies to feed them.  

We headed outside and prepared the habitat for the egg case.  

Then we hung it up in his room and waited......about three weeks.  

Then one morning it sounded as though it was raining in Evin's room.  

Hundred of baby mantis! 

Since they are voracious eaters and will eat each other we separated them the best we could.  

Then we shared some with our friends.....

Loving the outdoors!

Activities have taken the backseat to this week and we've spent more time outside.  

Nicole took him hiking and we've done TONS of biking and park adventuring!

When we were heading out on one of our bike rides, Evin gasped as he walked out the door and THREW down his bike so he could pick up his KIWI CRATE!  

They were mind-readers it was all about nature and space!  Awesome!  We built a cool lantern and a box to collect all sort of nature scavenger hunt items!

Check it out and get yours today!

Frozen nature

Evin and I went and picked out some fun leaves and flowers.  

After they were frozen we took them back out to our water and sand table and watched them melt!

It was fun for Evin to watch what floated and what sank.  

Raising Butterflies

Shortly after the mantis arrived our caterpillars arrived from Evin's Uncle Howard and Aunt Margaret.  

After a few days of eating A LOT! The caterpillars made their cocoons.    

And after a few more days of waiting, they emerged as beautiful painted lady butterflies.  

Evin spent a lot of time watching them flutter around.  

And then it was time to let them go.  I didn't catch a single release but here's Evin shortly after one left his hand!

Tadpoles to frogs! Hoppy activities!

Today we headed up to Lookout Mountain Nature Center for a tadpole toddler class.  We've attended one other class there and since then they have divided up the class options for two year olds and then older preschoolers.  What a good choice!  We had an awesome time!  Age appropriate, appropriately timed activities, and of course stations.  

They had a reading station, a water play station, a coloring station, a puppet play station, and a lily pad leap station.  If you haven't ever tried it this is something fun to set up while your little one is napping.  When they wake up it's station time!  Let them decide how long they spend at each station and watch how long you can keep them busy for!  

This was a simple station with foam lily pads, plastic frogs, rocks, and of course water!  Lots of ribbits, hops, and more!

Then we colored our very own frog and it's been hanging out with us ALL day!

At the puppet play station we fed bugs to ducks, frogs, coyotes, and trout!  Very fun!

Evin loved jumping around the lily pads and being a frog in a log!

After stations they read a story, jumped around the lily pads together, and danced.  

Then they each got their own frog and headed outside to see if they could find the right place to camouflage their frogs.  

Evin's was a pretty bright green but it worked!

Then he traded for a brownish orange frog and camouflaged it lots of places.  

At one point he hid it so well he couldn't find it!  

Then we headed back inside and he ran up to the educator and yelled THANK YOU!!!!  (four times)

WHAT!?!?!?  THAT HAS NEVER HAPPENED WITHOUT HIM BEING ASKED!?!?!!?!?

Then is was tadpole, frog, ribbit, ribbit, all the way home!  

Awesome time!  

Here are some activities we've previously posted of froggy fun!

 

Today at storytime we met two White's Tree Frogs and a Pacman Frog since the sloth was living up to her sleepy nature! W also read "Froggy Gets Dressed" all about a frog who gets dressed to play in the snow!  Great timing after all the snow we've had, all of the kids had played in the snow recently and knew all about dressing for the snow!  

When we got home we came up with two pretty fun froggy games!  

First we ate some flies (chocolate chips) just like frogs do!  With our tongues of course!  It took a few times but Evin got the hang of it and only snuck a few with his fingers!  Apparently it's pretty fun to eat with your tongue!

Then I cut some lily pads and flowers out of some foam I had in his craft supplies and we "lily pad leap"!  Tons of fun and great exercise too!

Flop!

Flop!

Flop!

This is the only picture that I could get where you could tell he was having a good time!