Worm Farm

Seeing how October is here, I decided it would be a good time to pull the tomato plants out of their little front yard garden plot, thus providing a nice little patch of dirt, perfect for digging and playing. I uncovered several worms while weeding in the backyard, and we decided to relocate some to the front yard, which seemed to be worm-deficient. The kids were really helpful with all the digging and worm-moving, and we had a good time getting dirty. Miles built a "worm house" from dirt, sticks, and leaves, to welcome the worms to their new home. Ruby made "sand castles" in the dirt. She quickly got over some initial squeamishness about handling the worms and yesterday when we were digging and playing she pulled one apart, making a wiggly worm pair. These, she decided, would be happy living in the sandbox.
Of course we also had to bring some critters in the house (don't ask me why) so Miles filled a stryofoam cup with dirt, worms and a roly-poly. We covered it with plastic so they wouldn't escape and punched holes in the plastic top so they could breathe. Well, wouldn't you know it--I found a roly-poly near this cup a few days later. Turns out those "air holes" were also perfect escape routes! Time for our "pets" to return to the wild!
After playing and working hard all week, we had a family "movie" night last night. It was especially rewarding for me because both kids watched and liked the videos, and they were favorites of mine as well. This doesn't happen often with a four-year-old and two-year-old. We watched "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" and "Close Shave" with Wallace and Gromit. Miles caught on to some of the Peanuts humor this time, and was talking about how poor Charlie Brown only got rocks in his treat bag. Ruby sat in rapt attention the whole time, and was mostly quiet!