Three beasties

Spring has been bursting out all over around here. First we've been following the happenings of a robin's nest in our playset:
 
Is there anything cooler than spying those bright blue eggs? This is what's exciting about Easter egg hunting, this is what it's about. Real eggs, bright eggs. What a shocking, delightful surprise. Unfortunately a couple of kids found them before I did and handling ensued. I've been so anxious about those eggs, but...tada!

All but one hatched. Two little squirmy, fleshy, fuzzy, squeaky lumps. Baby birds are BIZARRE. There were no parts that I could see. All chicken nugget.

We ordered a couple of praying mantis egg sacs online. My zucchini plants have been plagued by beetles for two years in a row, so I hoped to stock our garden with friendly bug predators. One we put in our rose bush:

They totally freak Dean out. At last, something that does! He thought they were genuinely creepy. The second egg sac I put in a glass bowl on top of our fridge so we could watch it hatch. The mantids aren't supposed to be able to climb glass walls. Well, one Sunday morning, I'm in the kitchen and notice that the fridge is moving in an odd way. Yep, about 200 mantids fresh from the egg sac and making their way out of the bowl and...everywhere. We rounded 'em up the best we could and distributed them in the yard. If you can see one on this leaf:

Tiny but so cool, perfect replicas of their adult counterparts. I'm loving them.

And for our third beasties making surprise apperances, I was writing in my room one afternoon. I end exactly at 6 pm and I opened my bedroom door to find two creatures waiting:

They made these masks with their sitter Kindra. Aren't they fearsome? Particularly the binkied one.

Aaahhh... I'm not showing photos of my kids anymore, but I figured since they're masked, it's safe. No one knew who Zorro was, after all. Or the Lone Ranger. Or Clark Kent. Maybe I'll just put them in glasses.

I'm off to New York tomorrow for BEA. A quick, busy trip, then home till Comic-con in July. We're gearing up for a potty training summer. Yee-ha!