Roly Poly Bugs

Yesterday I spun them around on our little octopus merry go round until I couldn't do it anymore. With four or five kids sitting on it, that doesn't really take long. They're used to me giving up quickly, and one of them will generally refer to my "tired little noodle arms". They know me well. Anyway, they asked if I would move it out a few feet so they had room to run around it and take turns spinning each other instead. Bonus.

I don't move it very often because it kills the grass underneath and it's kind of muddy and gross. I scooted it over a bit and they got to see a huge den? (nest? what do you call it?) of roly poly bugs.

And ooh, now I am totally going to print that out as a coloring sheet and teach them all about it.

But anyway. There were about fifty of them all milling around and the girls were immediately fascinated. Duchess, Ariel, and Tinkerbell (who was back visiting for the day) were fighting over who could catch more of them, gathering them by the handful, letting them crawl up their arms...

And Sebastian was standing on top of the merry go round screaming. "BUGS! YUCK!"

I love that we're all about breaking down the gender stereotypes here. :)

Ariel got to sixteen, I think, before her handful got so big she was going to squish them if she tried to put more in.


Sebastian, in the blue plaid, never would get down or touch them, but he did get brave enough to lean over and look a bit more closely.