insect adventure

Every Tuesday they have story time at the Mustang Library and this week we were in for a surprise!! Story time varies from week to week on what activities they have lined up for the kids. Sometimes they read books the entire time, sometimes it is a combination of stories, singing and crafts and sometimes they bring in a special speaker to talk to the kids on a specific topic. Today was one of those days!! Now, I normally don't go into story time with the boys. I used to but I quickly realized that my youngest, Maddox, participates less in the scheduled activities if I'm sitting in there with him. He gets more shy when I'm around and becomes more cautious. But, if I sit right outside the room, where I can still see the boys through a wall of windows (and they can see me too if they want to) Maddox tends to dance to the songs, answer the teacher's questions and get involved in the crafts. Today, though, my mom was with us and when she saw that the topic was going to be "bugs" she wanted to go in and hear all of the bug facts that the kids would be learning. So, of course, I went in too. Little did I know that I would be dragged into getting WAY closer to bugs then I have ever had the desire to...

The woman teaching the class is based out of Stillwater at OSU and studies bugs full time. I'll admit that she had a wealth of knowledge and shared some really cool facts about different types of bugs BUT what I didn't expect was that she would walk several choice bugs around the room and let you either hold them or pet them. YIKES!! To be totally honest, my heart began beating a tad faster when that first bug was making its way to my seat!! How did I let my mom drag me into this!?!?

Both of my boys were surprisingly EAGER to pet all of the bugs!! Ash wouldn't hold any of them but he pet every single one and Maddox let one bug crawl right up his arm!! I pet all of the bugs but sometimes just barely touched it with the tip of my finger so as not to get too close for comfort but still show my boys that I was brave. Ugh.

Do you see that HUGE green walking stick bug crawling on the teacher's shoulder???? Yuck!! That thing crawled all over her!! I was scared to death and it wasn't even on me!!

As soon as the class was over I ushered my boys quickly into the bathroom and we all washed our hands...but despite the fact that I was worried about icky germs I'll admit that it was pretty fun to hear all about bugs. I could have done without the petting but the facts were interesting. Next week, let's hope that we go back to just a good ol' fashion story though!! Ha!!