We have house guests. This is all Annabelle’s fault. She wrote a cute post over at Glass of Fancy about how she once sent her brother live bullfrogs. She said, “It’s amazing the things you can find in biological supply catalogs online”.

Immediately, I thought of my niece. Bing! went my brain. My Mom was Madame Fruit Fly Experiment when I was a kid. She bought Kaylee an Ant farm, and they adore it. She has a pond, sometimes a swimming pool, full of tadpoles. Wouldn’t she and Kay LOVE to WATCH the frogs develop? What CAN I get from biological supply?

Hello Google!

Hello Nature Gift Store!

I could get a tadpole kit, a pet frog kit, a Venus Flytrap kit, a ladybug kit or, hello a butterfly kit. I knew about these. But I thought they were sold at school prices for classroom use. Or that you had to send off for the kit, then mail away again for your caterpillars, and generally hassle about the thing. Not here. Reasonably priced, and you could get everything all at once.  Somewhere between ‘ooh look’ and ‘I clicked da button!’, I went from thinking, Kay would love this, to saying out loud, “Caroline and Sam are going to go CRAZY for this.” Did you notice the “would” to “will” shift there?  Yeah me too.

I’m not typically an impulse shopper, but I considered this for all of five minutes before I ordered it.

It came yesterday, live caterpillars and all.

The kids adore the houseguests.

They came into my office about a dozen times to check on them, and Sam was up with the sun (not that he ever sleeps much past its daily arrival) proclaiming, “I’m ready to check on the caterpillars.”

For their own safety, I’ve moved the caterpillars’ jar into the habitat, even though this is an unnecessary move unless you have an inquisitive four year old who should only hold said jar under supervision.

Anyway, the kids love the house guests, and I’m totally fascinated with them, too. I’ll keep you updated on their progress. In about a week, we should have chrysalides, and a week after that, we ought to start seeing our own painted ladies.

 

About jesterqueen: Jessie Powell is the Jester Queen. She likes to tell you about her dog, her kids, her fiction, and her blog, but not necessarily in that order.