To welcome spring, we decided to have a ladybug release party and brunch with all our friends.
The brunch was pot luck style so everyone brought something yummy to share. The ladybug portion of the celebration involved the release of 2,000 ladybugs. The second I cut open the net bag they had been stowed away in, the bugs were crawling out all over me then one by one they started flying off into the air or unto the body of one of the many preschoolers who surrounded me.
Once all the bugs had evacuated the bag, I carefully sloughed off my body, any remaining bugs and the kids went ladybug hunting, searching the grasses with magnifying glass at hand.
We also had bug rubbing plates as an additional activity or for those who didn’t appreciate the possibility of being covered with the spotted insect but most of the kids didn’t mind at least getting within an arms length of bug examination.
I think this ladybug activity is seriously one of my most favorites to date! Since the food was pot luck the event cost a mere $10 for the bag of 2,000 ladybugs which I picked up at my local garden store. Worth every penny indeed!
A word of advice: if you do this acivity at home make sure all the kids are gathered around ready with their empty baby food jars and magnifying glass at hand before cutting open the bag. Those lady bugs won’t be waiting around for an audience before flying off into the wide world…(or a couple feet away in a sunny patch of grass). Also make sure your camera is charged and strapped around the neck of an assigned photographer. That way you won’t have to send one of the parents in your home on a camera hunt while the ladybugs have their best camera face on. (Of coarse I am coming up with this scenario completely off the top of my head, I have a good imagination ;)
Most pics here were taken by a couple friends of mine, Katie Murihead and Trent Covington, who were both gracious enough to take photos of the event.
