tickle bugs

We just got back from Montana where we enjoyed a memorable family reunion and I really want to post about it. . .but my laundry's stacked high, my refrigerator is empty, my children need baths and my back is sore from traveling for nine hours straight. I guess what I'm trying to say is uploading pictures is about the last thing I want to do. So it will be a couple days before I get that post together. But I do already have this together:

My little bug catcher. He was so excited about having tweezers and a net to capture all his little critters. We have been keeping many a tickle bug in this little bug oasis. On this particular day he scored two teeny spiders, five tickle bugs including a mommy, daddy a brother and two babies, a slug, and a half dead bee. It was quite a group.

McKay's pets never last very long- a week or so if we throw in a raisin or two- who knew tickle bugs eat raisins? But even when they die he doesn't sweat it much. He'll just go collect some more while telling us, "When I was a little boy I called them roly polys, but now I call them tickle bugs," as he plucks more of the helpless creatures and drops them to their impending death. Hey, at least he gives them nice juicy raisins as a last meal.