Buggy Summer of 2011

For our kids, the Summer of 2011 will be remembered, not so fondly, as the summer they were introduced to CICADAS (in a sort of Baptized by Fire sort of way).  It seems like over night we were infested with thousands, maybe even millions of the noisy pests.

It started in early May when we noticed tons and tons and tons of little holes in the ground outside.  We eventually realized that the cicadas caused them and we were in for a surprising summer. 

All three kids were originally horrified by the "coming" to the point that it interfered with outside activities over the summer.  They were loud, annoying and dive-bombed us as we left the house.  However, by the end of their days, the kids had become a little more relaxed over the situation. 

I saw a news piece that the cicadas were great fishing bait.  When I told this to the kids they thought Gregory needed to gather up some for our Minnesota trip at the end of the summer.  This inspired Gregory to make a deal with them that for every dead cicada they collected he would give them a penny and for every live one, he'd give them a quarter.  At first they refused, so I offered them gloves.  They took on the challenge. 

Although, Gregory has not yet paid them for their service, he did store what they found in the freezer.  They made the trip all the way to Minnesota in our cooler and he used them for fishing.  They didn't bring any fantastic catches, but maybe that wasn't the bait's fault.  {wink, wink}

Now I have the above prized photo of my girly girls collecting bugs.  There isn't anything they wouldn't do for our trips to Minnesota.