Bag of Bugs

That's right, friends, today I got my daughter a bag of bugs--somewhere between 1500 and 1800 of them--and she couldn't have been more excited. Yesterday I got a flyer in the mail saying that if we would come by Red Barn Nursery in the next week we would receive a free package of ladybugs to release in our yard. When I read the ad out loud, Ruth perked up and said, "I really want those!" So, I told her if she had a good day at school today we would go by and get them this afternoon. The first thing she said to me when I got to her school was, "Can we go get my ladybugs now?" On the way to the nursery I was setting her expectations that the ladybugs wouldn't really be pets in the typical sense (which she was certainly expecting) and I was explaining to her that the labybugs would help take care of our yard and our plants because they would eat some of the bad bugs. When we got to the nursery, Ruth marched right up to the check-out counter and presented her coupon, and when she received her ladybugs she handled them with such care. Then, on the way home, as she held them gently, she looked at them and said, "Thank you, ladybugs, for taking care of our yard." She's very proud of her new friends, and I hope that when we put them out in the yard tomorrow they will see fit to make an appearance from time to time so she can enjoy them.