Life Appreciated: S'mores & Lightning Bugs

Earlier this week Ellie and I watched dozens of lightning bugs light up the darkening sky as we sat on the porch. "There's one! Look over there mommy! That one was so close! They are just so cool" I remembered being her age and watching them too back in Connecticut on a warm June night. I caught them in a jar one summer evening and I was so fascinated when they all glowed in unison behind the glass. So last night we decided it would be a good night to catch a little magic.

We knew we would have to wait until it was close to dark so before all the lightning bug fun began we decided to celebrate the end of the school year and the start of summer vacation with s'mores. S'mores make everyone smile and are such a summertime treat. I always flashback to the very first time I had one. It was 1979, I was 10 and I was at my first overnight Girl Scout camping trip. We sat around the camp fire and I watched in amazement as a hot, toasty marshmellow was placed on the chocolate and graham cracker sitting before me. Oh my God! It was the best tasting thing I ever had! I was hooked after that night and I so look forward to the first s'mores every summer. So back to last night, we don't have a firepit so we had to make due and use our gas grill. Steve took the honors of marshmellow roasting. The oohs and ahhs from the girls as they took their first bite was priceless.

Yeah for summer!

First S'more
A blurry photo but it still looks good enough to eat... oh... and it was!

Ellie's mouth is still a bit swollen from her mini-surgery but she managed to eat this without any problems whatsoever!

So we've enjoyed our s'mores and the sky is getting a bit darker and in the woods across the creek we can see pops of light making their way toward us. Little bursts of energy lighting up the landscape. I think we waited until it was a bit too dark because it was quite challenging to get some good photos in the low light.

Ellie is not a girly girl but she really isn't a tomboy either. She falls somewhere in between. She is up for participating in things she may be unsure of but she does it with caution. She wasn't sure if she really wanted to catch a lighting bug. She kept asking me if it was going to pee on her. I think she was recalling the little gray tree frog that climbed up my arm a few weeks ago. He peed all down my arm. I reassured her that there would be no lightning bug pee and that they are really gentle. After I caught one and put it on her palm she was OK with the idea. It was great to see her running after the glowing bits of magic. We decided to only catch 5 of them. We should have caught more but it was getting really dark and I believe the mosquito population in our yard was texting all of their friends to come over for the feast. It was fun and we have a few more nights that the lightning bugs will be around so we may go back out a little earlier one night and fill up a whole jars worth!

On the hunt...