Animal lovers we are not

No offense and I certainly don't want PETA mad at me but our genes do not breed animal lovers. I can tolerate them better than the rest of my brood, except for the pink baby. She loves animals but I think it has more to do with trying to get her mouth on them than actual like.

Anyway, today we had an encounter with a Praying Mantis. I went to close the sliding screen and there it was on the handle. I almost screamed a very bad word but the filter kicked in and it came out a very muffled "ffffff". Score one for mommy brain. The boys flipped their stuff. We do not like animals but we DO NOT like bugs even more (or even worser as it was today). The boys quickly devised a plan while I used a stick to gently guide the critter to our hibiscus bush.

Unfortunately for the boys (and luckily for the mantis) the only plan they conjured up looked exactly like the plan of attack Mommy has for spiders when Daddy's not there. 1. SCREAM, 2. Smash with shoe, 3. Toilet paper pick up and flush. This was a large bug. Mommy's bug default plan should have been tossed out.

Little brother, you get the long toilet paper and I'll get Dad's shoe. When I whack it, you grab it! On second thought, I'll watch while you whack and grab. Sound good?

Screw the TP, we're doing this my way. I will whack and smash and whack again.

Never mind, toss and run! Toss and RUN!

The logic here is that the mantis will crawl under the shoe and smash itself. Perfect!

And the mantis gets to live another day which is a good thing for all involved. The thing was so big that it would have been a nasty mess if it had actually been smashed. Ick.

*** Critter lovers: I was in no way going to let them smash this thing. I have issues with smashing anything larger than a dime.