Bugs and Birthdays at 6:15 PM

6 weeks back, Mom and I were at a garden store and I saw a sign advertising ladybugs, nymphs, and mantids for sale. I thought they would be fully grown already and I just wanted to see a bunch of praying mantises in a glass jar... we ended up buying two little mudballs that, after six weeks, would release over a hundred baby mantids. I had the privilege to see over a hundred little baby mantids crawl all over a tree in my backyard.

Check these little guys out.

No, the mantids did not eat that leaf. That would be a caterpillar's work. After a while, if any of the mantids survive, they will be eating caterpillars all the time!

" Move over, Bro!!"

That would be the mudball covered in dead and live baby mantids.

As you all know, the mantids weren't only birthday we were celebrating, Jonny turned 18 yesterday, and we partied accordingly :-)

Jonny with his German Apple Cake. There's only one candle because the cake was so warm that the bottoms of all the candles melted when we put 'em in!




Just us guys. (Dad really wants a slice of that cake baaaad)






Jonny with all of his birthday loot. The Coral Island by Ballantyne, Fredrick the Great by Henty, a Knight of the white cross also by Henty (MP3 disk), the sixth and last season of Hogan's Heroes, and lastly, a Benchmade knife that Jonny ordered on the Internet but that didn't make here in time for his actual birthday.

-Graydon L