Ladybug Days

Yesterday, the Lone Star Girl's Girl Scout troop was visiting the Botanical Gardens as part of a badge they were working on and the rest of our family tagged along. We used to go to the Botanical Gardens every Mother's Day when the Lone Star Girl was very small but had not been in many years. It was a lot of fun and convinced me that we need a new membership there. Yesterday was their big annual plant sale so it was a festival atmosphere but the beautiful trails alone were very worthwhile. After we had been there for awhile and were getting ready to go, we heard that there would be a ladybug release in the hummingbird garden so we ambled over there to see it. A nice lady was giving kids handfuls of ladybugs from a sack to release into the flowers. At first, the Lone Star Baby and the Lone Star Girl only wanted to hold one ladybug at a time, but they soon became braver and started taking handfuls to put in the flowers. We had ladybugs in our hair and all over us by the time we were finished. It was great fun.

In years past, I had bought the occasional spring tub of ladybugs from the local plant store to release into our own front garden. One year, I had the Brownies release them as part of a Try-It they were earning and one year, all the neighborhood kids came over and released them. The Lone Star Baby had so much fun with the ladybugs at the Botanical Gardens that I took her to the plant store and got a tub of 1500 when we got home. She released about half last night and will release the others this evening. Such a fun way to celebrate the springtime!