ANTS:Better than TV

Jonathan holding the test tube of live ants. They were transported with a piece of carrot. I guess this is what they lived off of during transit. Some of the ants did not make it to their final destination.

Both kids love the magnifying glass the ant home came with.

Jonathan using the included stick to make starter tunnels for the ants. The home is one solid piece of goo, and you dump the ants in the top, shut the lid, and they get to work making tunnels. The goo is also their food.

The kids taking a closer look.

I was the one who had to transfer the ants from their tube to their new home. I sort of liked it. It was a little thrilling.

And, as you can probably tell from this picture, I was also completely freaked out. They were pretty big ants. And if even one of them escaped during the process, I know I would have smashed it. And Jonathan probably would have been upset. He is really thrilled with his gift from Uncle Cory. He actually said, I really want to tell Uncle Cory thank you for getting this for me.

Dave and the kids checking out our new pets.

Jonathan using the magnifying glass. After we got it all set up, he unplugged it and asked it to be moved to his room. It doubles as a really cool nightlight. We went out to eat dinner at Friendly's tonight. Jonathan has been asking to go their for ages. He saw some commercial on TV, and was thrilled when he spotted the actor kid on the menu. Hey! It's that guy from the TV! He was so excited, you would have thought the actor was our actual waiter! The food was actually really good... really bad, but really good. He kept wanting to hurry up and get home because he wanted to see what his ants were doing. We kept reminding him that the book said it would take them up to 48 hours to start tunneling through the goo. But when we got home, those industrious ants had gotten busy! They had used one of the starter tunnels Jonathan and Anna made with the stick, and they were working really hard to make it deeper and deeper. It is so cool, they go down in the tunnel, pick up a tiny ball of goo in their mouths, and then climb back out and dump the ball of goo at the top. What was one solid, flat surface, is now covered with lots and lots of tiny balls of goo that look like air bubbles. Watching the ants is completely mesmerizing. It sends me into a trance... in a good way. I think it might be something good to meditate to or something. I can't stop staring at them. Neither can Jonathan. I never thought an ant farm would be so... relaxing. I think it is because it is a very futuristic ant farm, all blue lights and plexiglass curves and space-grade goo.