Going for a nature hike

We were going to hike the paved trail but the kids wanted to go on the dirt tracks. Off we went & we found all sorts of pretty & interesting things.

A passion flower.

The kids had fun watching the butterflies & caterpillars.

We hiked the dry river bed.

We found some butterflies apparently eating a snail. Do they do that?

Yea! We found the water.

A happy end to our trail.

Cicada song

The kids were amazed to see one of these up close. It was really loud!

The new pets

Let me preface this by saying that our neighbor is in high school & was doing a science project all month catching bugs that would be euthanized & mounted on a display. My kids wanted to help her & caught a lot of bugs these past few weeks.
I forgot to tell them not to name the bugs & a few recieved names & a place in our home now. Let me introduce you....

This is Brownie. This photo is almost life size.

This is Stripey. He is huge. He's about four inches & he can fly from our house to our neighbors house across the street with out stopping to hop at all!

This is Grassy. Adrienne's first catch. Grassy is much smaller than the other two & behaves very well. The kids have been taking turns feeding them all fresh grass & tasty lamb's ears leaves. Yum!