Is it a Geico or Gecko?

Paige, our "survivior" girl caught this. Can you see what it is??? Look closer. It's a baby gecko. See how tiny it is? She caught it just outside our front door. Which amazes me because I think it's parents live in our house.

Whenever I see our geckos run up our wall, I just smile. Did you know that they keep the insect population down? As far as I'm concerned they can move their entire family tree into our home. Bring uncle Bob, aunt Janie the whole crew. As long as they munch on the bugs trying to invade my cozy living quarters, they can party behind my fridge all they want!

They also make the most interesting noise. It sounds like a baby bird chirping. Not too loud, just a reminder that they are protecting me and my youngin's.

Paige, the Butterfly Hunter...

Paige loves butterflies. She has always wanted to hold one like she sees on advertisements here. Today, her dream was realized! She had been following this one for a few minutes. Then it decided to attach itself to her head. The color is this vivid. I only turned the rest of the photograph black and white. I left the butterfly in it's natural color. It was beautiful.


For the next 15 minutes it climbed on her finger, her arm and flew around her like a pet. It has been the highlight of "her" adventure so far.

Our Croc Experience

I would highly recommend doing a croc tour if you are ever headed this way. Troy was too cool to go and Dallin was concerned about being on a boat so close to the deadly animals. Did you know that 5 people a year die by a crocodile attack here in CR? It's usually men from the states that stand in the water to fish. As the tour guide was explaining this, his expression was one of confusion. He couldn't understand why they would put on rubber pants and stand in the river. How silly!

So without further ado, let me introduce you to "Fidel Castro" the largest crock this side of the Tarcoles river.




Let's just say that when the tour was over both Dallin and Troy were amazed!!!

No Disneyland here...

We went to a restaurant last night that had tiki torches at the front. It had a fun atmosphire and reminded me of Disneyland or Rainforest Cafe. As we were walking in we heard what sounded like tons of birds. Dallin had commented, "Mom, do you hear all those birds?" Of course the noise from the birds was fake, just like the tree was. The mood was just too perfect to be real. "Dallin's it's like Disneyland, it's not real." I decided to take a picture of the tree anyway.

Here it is.


I guess I was wrong. It is real.

Costa Rica is very real.


We counted 16 birds. Does anyone see more than that?

What I See Out my Window...

If I could have organized this photo shoot I would have had the butterfly on my side of the screen and window, but that's how it is with nature photography. {So now I've decided I'm a nature photographer with one butterfly shot. JK } I saw a blog awhile ago entitled, "What I See Out my Window". I've been meaning to copy this one. Today, this butterfly stopped the procrastination.
Isn't he/she beautiful????

Grasshopper bebes...

Aren't these adorable??? As I was getting my ninos to school I passed these on the wall. I almost didn't take a second look considering the "discussion" Troy and I just had involving these words, "responsible", "on-time" and "if you are late for school again I'll make sure you wish you were never born!". {I'm exaggerating on the last one, it didn't leave my lips. I kept that one in my head.}

So I saw these and then of course we were even later because I had to take these great pictures. See it's o.k. if I make us late, I'm the mom.
Now that that's settled here are a few things we learned about grasshoppers.

Their antennae are always shorter than their body.

They make noise by rubbing their hind legs with their abdomen or their front wings.

Grasshoppers lay eggs 1-2 inches in the earth, usually by plants.

The eggs look like thin pieces of rice.

Grasshoppers are eaten around the world. They are used as a filling or snack. The Chinese put them on skewers.

Raw grasshoppers should be eaten with caution. They can contain tapeworms. {Just in case you were thinking about it!}

They live up to 3 months.



When the eggs hatch the first one that hatches leaves and the others follow. (This is what we saw. One was climbing up the wall and the others were following.)

There's your little lesson for today. Oh, and the Spanish lesson for today, look at the title. That's it! Bebes means babies. :)

Our pet froggie..

Actually I think he's a toad. We have at least two of these guys in our courtyard. At night when I went out to finish laundry, my foot met one once. Now I always wear shoes. (for those of you who are worried, I just swept the frog to the side, it didn't meet it's fate) This is how creature capture and release happens in our family. They older boys T and D spot it, they run and announce the find to P (my daughter), she darts in the direction they told her and catches it. Then she hands it to them after they know it's safe. The boys love to be the ones to release, and she, well let's just say she's not the happiest camper when the animal is let go. Isn't this guy so cute??? He reminds me of the book "Frog and Toad" that I read when young.