Monday, July 13, 2009

"Light-up Bees" and Other Summer Evening Fun

One of our new favorite summer evening pastimes is chasing and catching lightning bugs (or light-up bees, as Joey calls them) at Riverside Park. We've been going out almost every evening after dinner to play at the park and catch bugs. Not only is it a fun and educational activity (home school science credit, anyone?) but it also has the extremely important added benefit of allowing the boys to run off any excess energy before bedtime. Gotta love tired boys!!

Jordan and Joseph...


Jordan's catch...


Look what I caught!


I tried so hard to get a picture of one actually lighting up...this is as close as I got!


Joey managed to have one land on his face...


Joshua trying to help Jordan catch a bug flying just out of reach!


Happy Josiah!


Joshua introducing Josiah to lightning bugs...


Unfortunately for the boys, I'm a mean mommy who doesn't feel any need whatsoever to bring critters into the apartment, so they have to let them all go before we come home. Of course, I tell them that it's for the bugs' sakes...they don't want to be separated from their families, after all, blah blah blah... So far it's working, although I do still get occasional tears from Jordan--seems he wants some lightning bugs for pets!

Now the youngest member of our clan, social butterfly that he is, has a different favorite summer evening pastime. We often let him stay up a little bit later than his brothers, so he can have alone time with mommy and daddy, and a short period to crawl around without being trampled by his big brothers. He LOVES to stand on the couch, leaning over the back, and look out the window. Sometimes we'll open the window, and he'll "talk" (too bad he doesn't speak a word of English) to all the passers-by, especially the ones walking dogs.

A few nights ago we raised the screen (our screens slide up and down in the frames much like the windows do) and let him sit in the window sill, with his little legs hanging through the burglar bars. He really enjoyed that! He'd call out to people as they passed by, and they'd do a double take then come to visit with the baby in the window! A few even introduced their dogs to Josiah, which he loved! Of course I had to take some pictures:






And one from the inside...


We did lose the paci out the window a few times and have to go retrieve (and wash!!!) it, which is why I went outside in the first place. Then it just seemed natural to snap a few pictures the next time! Apparently not only does Josiah need to learn some English to add to his vocabulary, but he needs to learn to talk without spitting his paci out into the street at the same time! :)

2 comments:

Annalia said...

It looks like he's in a baby jail!

I still remember when Tony showed me my first firefly in New York (upstate). It flew at me - I screamed.

Jenny said...

That's exactly what Jeremy said--baby jail!!

We used to catch lightning bugs while camping when I was a child, so I'm used to them and other creepy crawlies. I guess that's a good thing since I have a houseful of boys who love critters of any kind!!

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