Butterflies!

Emery and I recently went with some friends to the Butterfly Pavilion. I love that place. They were feeding the poisonous tree frogs right when we got there so we got to see them up close. Usually they are hiding in the plants and hard to see. These frogs actually aren't poisonous since the bugs they are fed aren't poisonous, but their colors are amazingly vibrant.

The frogs look fake to me when I see them because they are so brightly colored. 

 At the end of the exhibit they have a little display about bugs eaten around the world and a vending machine where you can buy bugs to eat. Emery was begging me to buy some, and I definitely couldn't refuse that request! My kid wants to eat bugs? Heck yes I'm buying some and going to video tape her reaction! So we bought some chocolate covered worms of some kind (shaped like larvae or mealworm) and passed them around. Emery was the first to go and she acted like it was no big deal. I kept trying to freak her out a little bit by saying stuff like, "Emery, THIS IS A REAL BUG. You are going to EAT a BUG. A BUG." But she seemed unphased. She did hesitate for a second and broke off a piece of the chocolate to eat, but once she realized it was real chocolate she just popped it right in her mouth and asked for more. My friend and her daughter also ate one, they said it wasn't too bad minus the feet that got stuck in your teeth. Blech! I did not eat one...I pulled the pregnancy card, "well...I might puke...you know, because I'm pregnant and all..." Really it just sounded too gross to me. I ate a fried mealworm in a college class and the memory of those little legs in my teeth was enough to make me steer clear of these ones, even if they were dipped in chocolate!