Firefly Relocation Program and a Bug Jar How-To

Here at the HOB, we have an outreach program for bugs, special sticks, and even pet rocks.  Normally, we keep the good work we do to ourselves, quietly providing meals, shelter, and, for the bugs, a crushing blow to the exoskeleton. 

We are committed to keeping these little balls of light as pets...

...whether they like it or not.

 Armed with nets and spaghetti jars, we take extra-long naps to make sure we're alert and ready to transport the unwitting and unwilling little buggers
 to their new temporary homes.  

In our home.

Yes, we love a bug hunt around here. 

But what we love most about  lightning bugs is their glowing hind-ends.  
Normally we clean out a spaghetti jar and catch away, 
but for Sarah's party, I wanted to do something special. 

I also wanted to give the bugs a break and the kids an incentive to release their prey.  

So, about 2 days before the big hunt, I got 6 mason jars from Dollar Tree, 
some glow paint, and some Q-tips and went to work.

Step 1:  Just load a Q-tip with some glow paint and dab little ovals at random 

            all over the inside of the jar.

Let it dry, and apply at least 2 more coats.  
*I didn't do this, but it might work better if you get some neon yellow or green paint and do the first coat in neon, and the subsequent coats in glow paint.

Step 2:  Use a Sharpie to draw wings and antennae on your cute little guys on the 

            outside of the jar.

Step 3:  (Optional) Go on a firefly hunt!

 Step 4:  "Charge" the glow paint under a lamp, turn off the lights, and enjoy 

              the glow of your very own little lightning bugs!               

I couldn't get a picture of the jars lit up in all of their buggy glory, but, trust me, it works.

Happy Monday!

  

Disney Domination

Hey, did any of you know that Disney World is a race?

Me neither.  But, apparently it's on the Y chromosome to attack Disney World at a flat-out sprint, leaving your wife and short-legged children far behind in your single-minded effort to ride on EVERY SINGLE RIDE as fast as possible.  I'm getting Mike a shirt that says,
 "I Won Disney and All I Got Was This Stupid T-shirt."  

Seriously, though, we got to the Magic Kingdom at 8:00 a.m., 

didn't leave until 8:00 pm, and never once had a stroller.  

Hardcore.

Like I said, we got to the park at 8:00, so that meant catching the bus over there at 7:00.

Will is not my morning person, can you tell? 

I was trying to get a shot of their reaction to seeing Cinderella's Castle, but these seasoned travelers were only mildly impressed.

And we were on our way!

Mike hadn't started sprinting yet, so I could take pictures instead of huffing 

and puffing to keep up.

Even though we'd promised to hit the teacups first thing, we stopped at a few other rides along the way.  First up was the Ariel/Under the Sea ride, 

then the Barnstormer, and Dumbo. 

I think what makes Disney all happy and magical is not the cheesy, too-short rides or the sweaty, too-long lines.  Nope, it's the fact that I can remember being Sarah's age and riding Dumbo and the teacups. There's a picture of me at age 5 riding Dumbo with my dad(?), and checking out my brother stuck in the stocks.

My roller-coaster buddy was still waking up.

We discovered two things about our kids at the theme park: Sarah is a roller-coaster hound and Will is NOT.
 Between his aversion to chocolate and his nervousness about roller-coasters, I'm not quite sure if he's actually related to me.  But we're keeping him anyway.

TEACUPS!

Going into this, Mike and I were trying to keep expectations low and plans loose so the kids could go at their own pace (ha!) and do what they wanted to do and see what they wanted to see. We only planned to ride 4 key rides and see a character or something.

Consequently, by 10 am, we had checked almost everything off of our must-do list and needed to map out a new plan. 

The new plan included visiting Winnie the Pooh:

Rapunzel's Tower:

And one of Will's favorites, the rocket ships in Tomorrowland:

After all of that, we needed some vittles.  Others of us needed a nap.

Refreshed and rejuvenated, we headed back into the fray for more adventures.

Mike and I tried soooo hard to convince Sarah that this was the parade:

But she wasn't buying what we were selling.

Around this time, we finally experienced the miraculous invention called the FastPass.  Even though we'd heard of it before, we thought you had to pay extra to skip the line.  According to a Disney employee, "We don't charge extra.  This ain't Universal."  
Hurrah!

 

As the day wore on, we got a little braver with our ride choices, taking the munchkins on Pirates of the Caribbean (A/C, glorious A/C!),

And the Haunted Mansion.  

The enigma that is Will Brown had no problem with either of these kind of scary experiences, even though Goofy's mini-roller coaster had him clawing me for dear life.  Meanwhile the Sis and I were pretty jumpy and a little freaked out when the Haunted Mansion ride stopped 3 TIMES while we were on it. 

We put Daddy in the stocks for that.

Then, in a stunning lapse of judgement, bought ourselves some swords.

Rookie move, I tell ya.

The rest of the day was spent accidentally stabbing fellow tourists, smacking each other, and trying to find a place to stow the darn things on rides.

Here's the part where I sound old and crotchety.  
Since when did Disney characters hold press conferences?  
Back in the day, Mickey and his cronies came to the people, 
the people didn't go to them. 

Oh, well, I guess when you're a princess, you get to hold court.  So that's where we met up with Tiana.  And a seriously hardcore Disney family.  They thought we were kind of weird for only coming to the park one day.  

I thought the same about them coming back every year.  

Every. Year. 

We capped the day off with a drive around the race track.

I think this was Will's favorite because he got to combine impossibly slow driving with reckless driving.  It kind of made me homesick for Nashville drivers;)  

Mike couldn't figure out why I was so whiny and the kids were so tired 
until I told him it was 8 pm. 

So, yeah, we did one day of Disney.  And we were glad to keep it that way.  We had a great time and the kids were troopers, but you could not have convinced me to go back and do it all over again the next day.