"...Caught a Firefly in a Jar"

Well, firefly sounds just as good as dragonfly!

For the past few weeks, I've been wanting to have the girls catch fireflies in jars. I can remember doing it at my NC grandparents' house as a kid, going to sleep with the mason jar full of glowing magic. Their beautiful suburban neighborhood, with its lushly landscaped yards, was a firefly haven!

Our neighborhood has proven to be similar.


I put tulle and a yarn string handle under the ring of the mason jar. I put a slit in the tulle, with the thought that they could slip the firefly through the slit without having to stop and unscrew the lid. Their attention spans are so short as little babes, so I felt that something that would streamline the process would leave them with a better experience. Certainly the jars were just beautiful!



It worked okay - the fireflies were good at escaping though. Perhaps burlap next time? Or just the tried-and-true lid with holes.



After about 30 minutes of catching and watching their jars glow, the fireflies stopped lighting up. They were sending us a very clear message that they were ready to go! So we found a dark nook under the hornbeam tree to release them (mostly) unharmed. I feel like a couple of sacrificed fireflies is worth the experience. That's what it's all about, right?



As an extra treat today, we got to visit the newest friend for a couple hours. Lela, Laurel and Liv enjoyed visiting with the older boys and playing with all their great toys. The mommas got time to swoon over a precious new life.