Hosting Dino Decendents in Our Home

WM, Church, Bday Party (and a run by Krispy Kreme...), and Girl Scouts have filled our day! It has been a great day (besides being awakened to three kids in my room at 5:50 this am!)

Our latest project is Triops. I'm sure you've never heard of them, and will live if you never know what they are. We found them in the checkout line at Hobby Lobby (didn't your mother ever teach you not to buy stuff at the checkout? It's more expensive and usually junk!). Come to find out, they are related to dinosaurs (isn't everything?) and horseshoe crabs (like we saw in Houston-Clay even got to keep one of their discarded shells!). They hatch out of tiny, pinhead-size eggs, grow up to 2 inches, live only about 30 days, and may (may?) eat each other (hence the short life cycle?).

Well, Clay didn't have the 3.99 to buy them, so I asked him what he could do to earn the money to pay for them. He said he'd vacuum out my van (so worth $4!), so I said I'd keep the triops till he worked it off. After we got home, Ches took Sissy to church (in my van), and after we got the vacuum all ready, we opened the door to find the van gone! He just cried. : ( Finally, he got it cleaned out, and then we opened the little seed-packet-looking thing. You have to use spring water or distilled water, or they won't hatch. He desperately wanted me to go to WM last night to get the special water, but it was so cold, and had snowed so much. I'm sure it was fine, but Ches said it was getting slick after church. So, we went this am before Clay and I went to church. So, now it has to be set out in a shallow glass container, and warmed to 75-82 degrees fahrenheit. It's very specific. We also have to give them 12-16 hours of natural light, plus a lamp over them 24 hours a day for light and warmth. You can't put in the eggs till the water is warm enough, then they should hatch in 18-30 hours. What an experiment! I'll post pix if they should come out.

I started working on my chair cushion covers last night. I'm almost done. I got one made (my prototype) and all the ties for the other 5. Now, to finish sewing them all. They are cute! Brown zebra on top, and lime green on bottom. I had leftover fabric from a couple other projects, so it worked out perfectly. Just a little work. I'll take pix if the kids don't slather them with dinner!

Clay's making dinner tonight. He is working on earning the wolf badge, so we are trying to fill in all the things he's missed by joining boy scouts late. He has to plan, prepare, and clean up after dinner. Woohoo! : ) He's chosen to make pizza (frozen), black beans, cantaloupe, and cucumber, and he shopped with me for the ingredients this morning. He's already peeled/cut the cucumber, cut the cantaloupe, the beans are heating, and the oven just said it's preheated for the pizza. He's making progress! I like boy scouts!