The Very Hungry Caterpillar

All my children like bugs.

Rex, however, ADORES bugs. He has a sixth sense for anything that moves. He could spend an hour just wandering our front yard in search of a cricket, a caterpillar or an ant hill. As a parent you have an amazing opportunity to love things that your children love. To get excited about the littlest ant, the tenth cricket that they have spotted in ten minutes. Bug hunting is a very practical way of loving our Rexy. His incredible eyes just light up when Dan asks him if he wants to go hunt for grasshoppers. They grab one of our ten or more bug jars (any plastic food container) and start their hunt. I usually stick with caterpillars or being the spotter of the bigger bugs.  

It's always amazing to me how much my children retain about things that they are excited about. We have read many books and magazines about bugs, birds, plants, animals and they just soak up all the information like a little sponge and get so excited to share it with others. The great outdoors (or just our yard) gets their hearts pumping!

So you can only imagine my children's delight when we discovered that something was eating all our flowers! 

My first planted flowers in three years of living in our house (we've been a little busy having babies) were being destroyed and it was up to us to discover who was the culprit.

 

Every day when we would go outside to play we would discover more and more and more flowers that had holes in them or were eaten off all together. 

And then the other day we discovered why! Look very closely! 

Some very hungry caterpillars live in our flowers. 

They are quite the camouflaged little guys and require some sharp eyes to spot. It's funny how many times we have sat by our flowers just looking for them only to discover them right in front of us the whole time. They get so excited when they see flowers that have been eaten, "They just have to be in here, mom!" is usually what I hear as we search for them! 

And if you thought those little caterpillars were cool just wait until you see this guy....

He was the biggest caterpillar that I had every seen. He really gave me the heebie-jebbies!

My children did not share the same jitters about this big guy and all excitedly held him.
Isn't he crazy!

My flowers are looking quite sad as they continue to be munched on by our new green friends! But the delight on my children's faces is worth the chewed up flowers for sure! If you ever spot a cool looking bug snap a picture for this bug loving gang of mine. I never imagined I would know so much about bugs, thankful for the five fabulous reasons I have to learn new things!