what's cookin' down at the Bug Cafe?

The kids have a few sets of flashcards. Not the test-the-kids-about-math-and-vocabulary type of flash cards, but sets of cards that have photos of animals on one side, and some facts about them on the other. I bought the cards years ago for the photos (quite good!) of so many different kinds of animals (there's a set on insects, birds, mammals, sea life, and dinosaurs -- ok, so those aren't photos of the dinos, but the art work is good), and we've used them for various games in the past. They also fulfill J's passion for collecting facts about anything and everything.

But the kids have found another way to use the cards. They lay them out then run around pretending they are each of the animals. They hold conversations with each other, in character, as the various animals. It's really quite cool. But today the game took a new, interesting twist. Today they decided to open the Bug Cafe.

As you may have guessed, the Bug Cafe caters to insect guests. So, with their pack of Insect Flash Cards in hand, J became the waiter at the Bug Cafe. He laid out the cards of all of his guests. Then he turned each card up in sequence and welcomed that guest (played by Zoo Boy) to the cafe. Here's how some of that conversation went:

"Welcome, sir, may I take your order?"

"Yes, I'm a mosquito and I'm hungry, what do you have for me to eat?"

"I have a plate of plant nectar, or a jar of blood."

"I'll take the blood, that's my favorite"

"Oh, you must be a girl mosquito then!'

"Yes, and I love to suck blood."

"OK, well, here's your blood. Bon apetit! I see another customer I need to wait on."

(A new card gets turned over.)

"Good day, sir, may I take your order?"

"Yes, I'm very hungry, what do you have for me to eat?"

"Well, you're a Yellow Jacket, and my menu says that you eat garbage and other insects, which would you like?"

"Hmm, other insects, do you have a Fly I can eat?"

"No, sorry, we're out of Flies. But I do have a Dog Flea."

(Heavy sigh.) "Oh, alright, I'll take the Dog Flea."

I guess you need to get down to the Bug Cafe pretty early if you've got a craving for Flies.