Cicada Fully Emerged

Cicada Fully Emerged
Originally uploaded by wenjomatic.
This morning we walked over to a neighbor's yard to watch some construction across the street. While waiting for the big dump truck to drop the gravel, we noticed some cicada shells on a pine tree. Looking closer, we saw that some of them were actually molting at just that time. It was so incredible!

This one was already molted as we walked up and was drying his new wings on the back of his old shell. As we stood and watched, he began moving around on the bark. The children were able to touch his soft wings without disturbing it.

This was one of those moments that makes me so happy about our parenting decisions. If I were a working mom, these kids of moments would be so much fewer and farther between.

Of course... we had to bring some shells home: