i love bugs

We've been catching all sorts of neat bugs in the bug box this summer. The other day we found a flowering hermit beetle. I should have put a quarter next to this guy so you can see how big he is. According to the info on the ISU website they are one of the largest insects in Iowa. Once I convinced Keira that he wasn't going to eat her or bite her she decided she liked him quite a bit.
A couple nights ago we found this cicada on our steps.
Keira was very enamored with him and named him Taxi (she also named the beetle Taxi-apparently it's a popular bug name).



Taxi spent the night with us and then the next night we took him outside so he could go back home. He was kind enough to hang around for the photo ops before flying off to a prime location on the tree.

Keira is very excited about her upcoming birthday. We had planned to buy a cake for her but today at Wal-mart she saw some Diego decorations and asked if she could have them. She decided she wanted to help make her birthday cake so we've got a devil's food cake mix, some Diego decorations, and a whole lot of assorted sprinkles-should be interesting.