Cupcakes, Ladybugs & Wormeries

Yesterday was a glorious day. Full of sunlight and spring temperatures, it was the kind of day you dream about. One that makes you wish you could live outdoors.
So, we did just that until the sun went down and the cold came again.

Inspired both by Noggin and a book we checked out from the library, we decided to catch some pet worms. First we needed a house for them, so we created a wormery. We started by finding an old oversized beaker shaped glass vase I had lying around. We then added a layer of soil, then a layer of sand, then a layer of peat. To top it all off, we put decaying leaves on top to give our worms something to munch on.
Here's Amelia putting the leaves in:



The next step is finding some worms. We had to dig a bit more than I expected. It seems like during the summer months they're everywhere, but not so much in winter we found. But after some fun time spent digging in the dirt, we unearthed a few. Hurray!

Here are Amelia & Coop watching in wait to see where the worms will wiggle to:

After we got all done, I read that the worms prefer a dark environs which mimics being underground. Of course, that makes sense. The book suggested a paper wrapper, but I thought why use paper, when you have fabulous rainbow striped leg warmers just begging to be used as wormery cozies! Voila!
While making the wormery we had a surprise visit from a dainty ladybug who took a liking to Amelia. Amelia was a bit disappointed when the ladybug flew off eventually as she had thought that the ladybug made an ideal pet (evidently much better than a worm).


Matthew decided to make his own wormery and really got into the worm searching part of it. I had to call him in as it was getting cold and he was still digging. (Note: In all fairness I should mention that he knew once he came in, he had to either read a biography for his English class, clean his room or work on his Science leaf project, so that might have had something to do with it). :-)


When the sun did go down and sadly we had to come in, we decided to cheer ourselves up with some cupcake baking. I had lots of help.


The finished product:



So were they good?
Cooper thought so. As did Amelia, who asked to lick the bowl. That's frosting on her left eyebrow.


Hope your Sunday was as fun & yummy too!