First we headed to St. Patrick's Cathedral to observe a program for homeschoolers called "Catholic Schoolhouse." I have registered Joseph and Simon for next year, so I took the opportunity to check it out first hand. It was a three hour session. Once that was over, I and the kids were very hungry, so we grabbed some fast food lunch, I ran an errand and then took them to the Charlotte Nature Museum. We did not go back home, because we had to return to St. Patrick's later in the day. This visit to the Nature Museum, we decided to go outside and check out the nature trail. We were in luck because a pair of barred owls that have a nest in a tree at the Museum were both perching on trees nearby and we were able to visually locate them in the trees (with the help of one of the employees) and we found this very interesting. (Well, mostly Joseph and I.) It took Joseph a long time and several attempts by the museum guide to get him to see the owl in the tree. After trying a new vantage point and telling him which trees and branches to follow with his eye, he finally asked, "What's that big pine cone?" That big pine cone was the owl! You can even watch a live feed of the owl's nest on their website. There are two owlets in the nest. Very cute!
After a couple of hours there, we returned to St. Patrick's for the monthly FACES co-op that we participate in. (A Charlotte homeschooling group for Catholic families). Joseph went to his little class and I plopped myself down in the nursery with Clara and Simon until it was time for the potluck dinner that follows the class. I was pooped! I had been wearing Clara on my back for the majority of the day, and that in and of itself is exhausting.
One of the other fun and exciting (and nerdy) things that we experienced during our long, adventuresome day was seeing a ladybug larva and pupa! Did you know that this is a (baby) ladybug??
Well, neither did I until last week and I never saw one in real life until yesterday! Ladybugs are one of many insects that undergo complete metamorphosis (like butterflies and moths). Joseph has been very interested in butterflies and caterpillars and insects recently. We borrowed a video from the library about insect life cycles and it only shows an illustrated (somewhat cartoonish) ladybug life cycle, so I really didn't know what each stage looked like. But one of the other little boys at co-op had found them outside and made his mother hold on to them for him, so I saw them while I was in the nursery. I made sure Joseph got to see them afterwards. As we were going home, we found a group of plants on the grounds at St. Patrick's that had many many ladybugs in all stages of development, but it was too late and we were too tired to spend time looking at them. As it turns out, we went back to St. Patricks for daily Mass today (something I did not plan in advance and we have not done before, but since our regular routine got thrown off this morning, I adjusted.) And since we had a bit more leisure time after Mass, we spent a while examining the plants and the larvae and pupae and adult ladybugs we found all over them. The only thing we did not see were ladybug eggs. I'm sure we could have seen them if we looked hard enough, but I was again too tired to stoop down and carefully turn over leaf after leaf in search of eggs with Clara attached to me in a sling.
So after an entire day out of the house, we got back home, eleven hours later, already past our usual get-ready-for-bed time. We put the kids to bed, and I don't remember what happened after that.
WHOA...THAT was a ladybug? I learned something new from you today! That is awesome! How cool! I have to show this to the kids...when they are not in bed!:)
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