Buggy Buggy Birthday Cake

For Amarra's Buggy Birthday party she put in a special request for some very "buggy" cake. (I tried to talk her into cake from the bakery, but when the answer is, "But Mom, your cake tastes so much better!", what can you possibly say?) We made chocolate cake for the "dirt" and some green whipped cream/cream cheese frosting with green "sparkles" for the grass. Amarra giggled and giggled as she and I placed the bugs ( two packs of plastic bus from the dollar store) all over the cakes. She then ever so graciously took the time to tell me what each and every bug was. (Mmmm, cockroach frosting.) Some people laughed their heads off when they saw the cakes, a few said, "Ewwww!", but everyone gobbled it up, bugs or no bugs! Amarra was simply in heaven. And really, that's all that counts.

Bug Me

Well, you know we love the library. And OMSI. And we've got a self-procalimed etymologist (though I like "tymolotist", the way she says it) living among us. So, when we happened  to be at the library the day they started registering for an OMSI bug class...well, Miss Amarra was just in heaven. When it was time to talk about the parts of the insect, the instructor asked for volunteers that liked to wear costumes. Elora's hand shot up as she shouted, "I so TOTALLY do!", which made everyone laugh. So she got to go to the class as he dressed her in an abdomen, thorax, wings, legs, and head. Pretty funny stuff! Then the class got to "meet" a few insects from OMSI and learn about their habits, diet, life spans...all that good stuff. Then the class split up to examine specimens through microscopes and do some buggy crafts (yes, I have marshmallow insects living on top of my refrigerator right now). Those who wanted a closer look at the insects gathered, just a few at a time, at the other end of the class.  First in line?  Oh yeah, Amarra. Another mom and I grossed out together a bit as she leaned her face about an inch away from a hissing cockroach, and she petted the Rosie the rose haired tarantula more than once. Her favorites, though, were the walking sticks. (I just know it wont belong before this house is full of even more bugs than the currently captures spiders and grasshoppers.  *shudder*) She looooves those walking sticks. The big surprise, though, was that when Seleia and Elora joined a later group to get up close and personal with the bugs they both petted those hissing cockroaches.  Ewww! (For those not in the know: cockroaches and I?  Not friends.) I love the look on the little boy's face in the background when Seleia pets it...I think I was making the same face. These girls get an A+ in my book, though, between the bugs and the squids. Tough little chickies. And  we came home with another hundred or so bug books from the library that day. That's my tymolotist!