It's so hard to say goodbye

My mom bought London a lady bug kit about a month ago. It's a plastic dome with everything you need to "house" your lady bugs. You just mail in your coupon and in a few weeks you get the larvae in a tube. London was so excited when they finally arrived. We emptied the tube in our dome and watched them. They crawled around and explored their new home. I made London get a little notebook and she drew pictures and wrote down some words each day about her lady bugs. (This teacher side will never die.)

She is such a good little student.

Everyday we made some observations. It was secretly really interesting to see them change right there in front of you. After a couple of weeks, they got really still and were transforming into adults. That was when it was a little boring. I thought that maybe we had done something wrong and they died. But sure enough, one morning we woke up and found our lady bugs crawling all over the place!

We fed them raisins. They would push each other off of them. Who knew they liked raisins?? We kept them for a little longer and then send-off day arrived. We went outside, opened up the dome, and let them fly off.

I was so sad to see them fly away. We took care of them for so long. London was a little sad too. She kept asking me if they were going to be okay on their own. I told her I thought they would be just fine. It did storm really bad that night, and I worried about our little lady bugs. I know---I'm weird.

I did find some interesting facts on lady bugs:

*lady bugs are not bugs

*they are also called lady bird beetles, lady bettles, lady cows and lady flies

*are know to spray a venomous toxin when threatened

*they live 1 to 2 years

*some species lay extra infertile eggs so that the larvae who survive can have an extra food source

*they are often associated with the Virgin Mary

*the insect has been referred to belonging directly to God

There you have it. Some facts about lady bettles. Now you can enjoy your weekend.