kids « Barron of Blog

5Dec/110

Fan Fort!

One of my favorite indoor activity with Libby is building forts. We have made pillow forts, blanket forts, and laundry basket forts. But I think we really outdid ourselves when we made this "fan fort":

To construct this fort we cut open 5 large trash bags and taped them into an approximate teepee shape (original plan was a large tube, but we ran out of tape so we improvised). After attaching a small fan and checking for leaks we inserted a table lamp (and loads of toys) to brighten the space up.

This fort is a perfect little hideaway. Despite being a small dark plastic cave, the fan fort is very soothing. The constant whir of the fan drowns the world outside, and it's the perfect place to read books or pretend with a friend.

Filed under: cool, kids, libby No Comments

22Nov/110

Ride for Will

Libby rode in a charity bike event this summer in support of one of their friends who has juvenile diabetes. The first lap of the "race" was lead by a fire truck and police car with their horns wailing and their lights flashing... very exciting!

: The whole group of kids on the ride

: Lining up before the race

: Libby was very excited to race!

Libby did great - she rode for several laps and did a great job keeping up (and even passing) some older kids that were there.

Filed under: kids, libby No Comments

24Oct/110

Encounter with a Wheel Bug

Alternate title: "How to unknowingly expose your kids to a potentially dangerous bug and live to tell the tale."

This past weekend we went to pumpkin fest - it was a gorgeous, perfect day to spend sliding down a hay slide and playing in some corn pits. Near the end of the afternoon we came upon a large bug which the kids loved to (carefully) play with and investigate:

: A wheel bug hanging onto the edge of a finger

: The wheel bug slowly crawls from hand to hand

: Letting a wheel bug climb up Sam's arm

: Libby posing with a wheel bug on her sleeve

We did not know at the time, but that bug was a Wheel Bug (Arilus cristatus):

The [wheel] bug plunges its beak into its victim, pinning its prey with its front legs. It then injects enzymes into the victim, paralyzing it and dissolving its insides, and proceeds to drain all of the victim's bodily fluids. The bite of a wheel bug is painful and may take months to heal (sometimes leaving a small scar), so caution is highly advised when handling them.

Yikes! Guess we won't be handling these bugs in the future (at least not with kids ).