Maple Jones and Wormie

Whenever we go out for walks Hannah and Lily are forever walking at a snail's pace stopping to pick up what sometimes seems like every rock or twig that lines their path.  This week I decided that we should actually use some of the things that they liked to collect and turn them into something fun.  We took a little walk outside before the heat became too unbearable to intentionally collect all the sticks, rocks and leaves their little hands could pick up...

We brought all their findings home and dumped them out on the table...

I grabbed the glue gun and we got to work.  Here is one of our creations...

Her name is Maple Jones according to Hannah and she now sits on the windowsill in our kitchen. She has an apron made from leaves from our bushes, a maple leaf for a hat, rocks for a body, sticks for arms, leaves for feet and a sweetgum ball for head.  We think she's pretty cute!  My favorite part of this project was watching Hannah use her imagination and come up with using these great leaves for Maple's feet and showing me how they also make great bunny ears.  This is a project that I will keep on hand for those days when we are going a little stir crazy in the house and need a little distraction.

We also have a new pet in our house.   She looked like this when she arrived...

 

Her name according to Hannah is Wormie Worm and she is actually a caterpillar.  She arrived at our house attached to a piece of corn in our "vegbox".  We decided to put her in our little bug viewer with her corn and watch her for a few days.  Hannah and Lily thoroughly enjoyed watching her feast on the corn and crawl around the little bug box.  A few days later though we checked on her and she looked like this...

So we are now raising a butterfly.  We have changed her home to include some leaves and a stick, read up on what to do when she emerges and plan on releasing her back outside once she is ready.  It is a really neat process to watch and we are anxiously awaiting Wormie's debut as a beautiful butterfly.

Have a great weekend!