How neat is that?

Neature Guy would have a great time exploring in our backyard.  Aside from the resident beaver and typical backyard wildlife, our yard is full of neat bugs.  Sean keeps saying he can't wait til Jackson has to collect bugs for a science class, because he'll have lots of neat ones to share.  Just the other day we saw a giant red ant-looking-creature crawling across the driveway.  He looked mean, so after several attempts (he wouldn't die!) he was squashed.  Of course, I had to do a little googling to try and identify him.  Turns out, it's a good thing we squashed him, actually her, because it was a Velvet Ant (or Cow Killer).  This 'ant' is actually a wasp -- a wingless wasp.  How neat is that?   Explanation of the multiple attempts to squash her from NC Pest News: 'The velvet ant has a tough exoskeleton which protects her from stings by the host wasps in the nests that they invade and it similarly provides some protection from light-hearted (or light footed) attempts to crush her. Never employ this control method while barefoot.' That's pretty neat!


Sean and Jackson found an always neat praying mantis yesterday.

Jackson was very interested and was cool with holding him and letting him climb on him. 

Kate, however, was curious and intrigued, but when it came down to it, she would not hold it.  Just like here, she would act like she wanted to, then quickly back away saying, 'no no no'.  

They even took the neat little guy for a ride on the gator.  Kate kept a close watch on it -- just to be sure it stayed on Jackson, not her!  

Pretty neat!

My Quotable Kid

I found this book on Pinterest today and thought, 'what a good idea!'  Jackson and Kate say (or do, more so Kate) things all the time that are H.I.L.A.R.I.O.U.S.  I actually thought about ordering one, but then reminded myself that 'my quotable kids' are part of the reason I have this blog and why I attempted the As They Grow posts.  So with that, the latest from my quotable kid, Jackson...

(As he's tackling the playroom, while we clean up after dinner)  "Is anybody gonna come help me clean this freakin' mess?'

K, so that's the first time we've heard him say anything like that!  We should've gotten onto him for saying it, but I couldn't stop giggling, so I just went to a closet to put some things away.  :-)

Makeup Invasion

The curious, copy-cat that Kate is, it was bound to happen -- Going into Mommy's makeup for a little fancying up of her own.  I just wouldn't have expected that she would've used mascara as lip gloss...

At least it wasn't waterproof mascara! 

Jackson's 1st sushi experience

For a while now Jackson has been asking to eat sushi.  This has been brought on by a couple of things. Ashely and I go out for sushi once a month or so and he's heard me talk about that.  There's also apparently an episode of Caillou where he eats sushi with his Asian friend, Sarah.  Since I really want to try and keep our kids out of food ruts (chicken nuggets and mac & cheese), I try to encourage him to eat, or at least try, different things.  The sushi thing was actually his idea, but I wasn't going to hold him back.  I picked up a pre-made roll at Trader Joe's the other day and he actually liked it!  I didn't have chopsticks for him, so he did miss out on the novelty part of it.  He's still been asking to go out for sushi, so last night we all met at Ashely's house and went over to Sushi Thai for his first authentic experience!  And guess what??  He loved it!  His favorites were the salmon on top of the San Francisco roll, which he called ham, and the Dragon roll with tempura shrimp, cucumbers and avocado.

As for Kate, both she and Jackson LOVE edamame so of course we started out with an order of that.  We also had some pork gyoza for an appetizer and while Jackson wasn't really a fan, Kate LOVED it!  We ordered just a side of rice for her, but she actually picked through some of the sushi pieces, too.

Here's a look at what we enjoyed...

I love this picture of Jackson!  Look at him work those chopsticks.  I should add that on his first piece he got frustrated with them and grabbed his fork, but after watching us eat, he decided to give them another try.  :-)

Check out Jackson's plate when he was finished!  I'd say there's no doubt that he enjoyed his first sushi experience!

Side note: Admittedly, Sean is not a fan of sushi.  He loves fish and all the other things that make up a sushi roll, but together, he seems to have an issue with the texture.  However, last night he decided to give it another try.  And he confirmed, once again, that it's just not his thing.  I think the pile of spicy tuna (that was mistakingly missing some sauce - probably b/c we ordered one of the other rolls without the spicy sauce for Jackson) was just too much for him.  So I guess Jackson will have to join us on girl's night if he wants to go out for sushi again.  That is, until Raleigh gets The Cowfish that is in talks.  ;-)

Catching up

Obviously, I have a lot of catching up to do on this here website.  And I promise I have not abondoned it -- I've just lowered it's priority.  I'm not sure yet how I'm gonna get everything posted that I want to, but I'll figure it out.  It'll probably be kinda scattered for a while...past events mixed in with current events. 

That's actually not the 'catching up' that I wanted to write about today though.  This weekend I did some catching up with my cousin, Christy, that I had not seen in years!!  I was very close with her and her sisters growing up, but when they moved out of town, I didn't see them as often.  However, the fun, silly, childhood memories that we made together never faded.  She and her family now live near Atlantic Beach, which is where we spent the weekend with my parents.  Thanks to Facebook, we were able to get in touch with each other and made some plans to get together for dinner.  She has 2 boys, 6 & 3,  so Jackson could not have been happier!  The boys had the best time playing together and definitely covered it all, from swimming to fishing to hide and go seek and pirates!  I took a couple of pictures of the kids playing.  Shame on me for not getting one of Christy and me.  I guess that means we have to make plans for another get together!

(And yes, Jackson is totally losing his shorts!)