Ick, a bug

Long ago when I was very young (so a really long time ago) my dad used to catch cicadas and he would bring them in to show us. He thought it was so funny to pretend that he was shaving with it. Uggh! it was bad enough that he had it in his hand, but then he rubbed it on his face.
Oh, I can't stand it.
But the picture is here for my dad (if he reads this).

The other day we were playing outside and I noticed this cicada shell. the kids aren't scared of it "because it isn't alive", says Emma.
Erica will eventually, I'm sure, add it to her dead bug collection that she has had for a couple of years. She collects things like dead dragonflies and butterflies. She, at leaast, does not keep dead spiders - thank goodness. Of all the things a 13 year old girl could collect! I wouldn't have chosen dead bugs for my collection. I suppose I don't mind since she keeps the collection outside and if she learns something from it then I guess that's okay. I don't think that she will ever become an entomologists because of her bugs because she can't stand many types of insects and I don't think that she will ever get past the creepy factor.

addition:
Timothy and Emma went out to pick some apples this morning and Tim just came back in to show me the bug they had found on the tree. This one is alive, but it is brand new. they are kind of a pretty color when they emerge but that's as far as I'm going to go with that.

The kids were excited to point out how many empty husks were all over the tree and the few live bugs that were still drying out and hadn't climbed any higher yet. I just got the heebie jeebies every time Ronan or Connor walked close to the tree.