Praying Mantises

This morning we went for a walk which was a nice change since it was rainy last week.  We usually walk a couple of miles (it's sort of like a country block) in a loop.  Today was different because Silas threw his hat out of the stroller (rather stealthily since I didn't notice it was gone until about five minutes later).  Luckily Sawyer saw him throw it and just did not say anything.  He knew where it was, so we turned around to get it, then headed back the way we came from originally.

The boys wanted to play with the kittens when we got home.  I found a gopher in one of Adam's traps, so we took that to the barn with us.  We couldn't catch Pumpkin, but Sawyer caught Mischief and brought her outside with us for a brief time.  There was heavy machinery across the street, so we put her away before she could run away, and headed to the sandbox.

The boys dumped sand on each other quite a few times, despite my pleading and commanding.  We headed inside and I happened to look up when I opened the fridge.  I discovered the large amount of praying mantis hatchlings.  The boys were delighted.

I put Solomon down once he fell asleep.  Sawyer laid on the couch to watch Tangled.  Silas stayed awake, so I figured I would cut his hair.  When I called out to Sawyer from the bathroom, asking if he would like his hair cut, too, he didn't answer.  I found him sleeping after being out of the room for probably five minutes.  That is a mom victory because getting them to sleep is almost always a struggle.

Silas played on his tablet doing puzzles, pulled out all of the activities from the drawer, ran around yelling, and was an all-around terror.  I finally got him to sleep by carrying him around and telling him he had to put his head down on my shoulder.  He fell asleep hard after being awake for more than eight hours straight.

Sawyer checked his praying mantises several times to see what/how they were doing.  He held Solomon and said that Sol wanted to watch "I have a pen, I have a pineapple, UH."  Adam showed the boys a ridiculous Youtube video and apparently it stuck.  😆

We will finish our BLTs for supper and play outside the rest of the night.

***EDIT***

I was planning to just enjoy what was happening and not take any pictures.  Adam found a sparrow egg and Sawyer and I brought it inside to open.  A teeny tiny not-ready-to-hatch bird was inside.  😥