Saturday, July 7, 2012

Camp Deep Creek - July 6 - Week 3

We were late.  REALLY late.

I started out the day with best intentions.  I made banana pancakes while the children still slept, woke them and got them fed in plenty of time to leave the house by 9:30am.  We really were going to leave the house at 9:30, and then I got stuck.  Stuck on my want for Ivory to have her bug cage for the Bug Bash day at camp.
For her birthday, Ivory received a bug cage, and Sylvan, in little brother fashion, promptly stepped on it and tore a giant hole into one side.  So, while the children were eating, I pulled it and a thread and needle out and attempted to patch it.  I wove my needle through the mesh while Sylvan desperately tried to wrench it from my hands.

Photo credit:  Ivory West - I had no idea she was playing with the camera..
and yes, there is Sylvan's sneaky hand trying to grab the box away from me. 
Sewing it was much slower and much more difficult than I imagined it would be.  When I got to the bottom edge no amount of coaxing would make the stitches hold.  The nylon mesh just tore. Frustrated I put Sylvan and Ivory, our picnic lunch, the half mended bug box in the car and finally drove off at - argh - almost 10.

We were late.  REALLY late.

I really, really hoped that my obsession with fixing Ivory's damn little bug box had not resulted in her missing all the real live bugs. There I was beating myself up about: one - not being able to fix her box and two - making us late for, well, no good reason.  I didn't even manage to fix the stupid thing.
To my immense relief we had missed nothing.
We didn't miss the singing.


And most importantly we didn't miss any of the bugs.
A guy and gal from the Missoula Butterfly House and Insectarium unveiled the first terrarium.  It contained a male and female Madagascar hissing cockroach!


Did you know the males can be distinguished from the females by  little bumps on their heads?
That their 'noses' are on their abdomen? That they hiss through those "noses"? Ivory was riveted.


Sylvan, well, he was more interested in climbing than bugs. 



When Adam came home from work Ivory was bubbling with excitement, attempting to describe the 'bugs' she had seen and finally succumbing to simply saying: "I touched a round thing." (confusion from Adam.) "Mama tell him about the round thing I touched."
"You touched a millipede."
"YEAH!!"
And she continued to spill out little bits of information about the scorpion (not an insect) that was going to eat a fly (an insect) and the green bug (a praying mantis) and the walking dead leaf (a ghost mantis).


After the presentation, the kids (and adults) were set loose to find their own flying and creepy crawling insects.  Swallow tails, little blue butterflies, beetles were netted, admired and let go.


A little later, we were all sprawled out eating our lunches and delightfully clever insect related snacks were passes around (thank you Linda!): Ants on a log and dragonflies.  


The dragonflies were a hit. Sweet and salty and, in Sylvan's hands, more than just a little messy. 
This was about when, the children took the day's activities into their own hands.  One by one they stripped off their clothing, lined up and took turns sliding into the kiddie pool. (Sylvan tried it once and went on to do other things.)


Ivory splashed into the water and out just as quickly, time after time...  


Sylvan fell asleep almost immediately on the drive home, Ivory chatted the whole way, and in the very back of the car, tucked next to a pile of wet clothing, our blanket and what was left of our lunch was a bug box that, in spite of a giant hole I just couldn't fix, contained a little blue butterfly.

4 comments:

  1. This looks like Ivory's idea of fun! What a great camp. She did a great job on the photo of you repairing the bug box, too. Where was the camp?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The camp is a few miles out of town at a friends house. They have a beautiful place with meadows, mountains, a pond, horses, a sandbox.. swings... really, quite idyllic.

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  2. You do such a good job of capturing the wonder that is Camp Deep Creek, Heidi. And I love that Ivory captured you fixing the bug house.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for creating the opportunity to "be there" with you!

    Grandma

    ReplyDelete

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