The Ants Go Marching

Because we lack shelf space in the girls' room, the ant farm now lives in the dollhouse. Very fancy.

     As an early birthday present, Lydia got an ant farm from her Grammie and Grandpa.  She is so excited, and can't wait to take it to school.  UPS dropped it off in the evening, right at bedtime, and since there were live ants in the package, we had to open it.  If you've never had an ant farm, it is wild.  The harvester ants come in a test tube that you have to put into a container of gel.  Within 24 hours they start building tunnels and for a couple of months you get to watch the tunnels grow.  Magnifying glass included.  Since it was so late, and we lacked patience, we did Not read the directions that said to put the test tube of ants in the refrigerator for 10 minutes so that their heart rate would slow down.  Nope.  We just opened up the tube, on the girls bedroom floor, turned it over into the gel and watched half the ants freak out and scatter every which way out of the container and onto the carpet. Oh, the squeals!  I commend Kenny's cat-like reflexes for saving several of them, but there were a good 5 or 6 we squashed dead trying to get them back in the container.  Should I make the "dead-ant, dead-ant, dead-ant" pink panther joke.  (That may be totally dating myself.) But, despite the massacre, there are many ants left for us to watch tunnel and, it must be said, to march one-by-one.  Hurrah, hurrah.