Happy Earth Day! Today is the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day. We have a wonderful planet, and I’m so grateful for its beauty. I hope that you will find some time today to celebrate the wonder that is Planet Earth, to reflect on our responsibilities as stewards of that wonder, and get outside and ENJOY it!
Photo by Shaun Fox
I have a fantabulous giveaway for you today from Insect Lore, a very fun company that sells live insects and other critters, as well as everything you need to care for them. But before we get to that, here are some links to inspire you today.
Earth Day Celebrations
Earth Day Swap
Bloom is hosting an Earth Day Swap today. Leave a comment with a link to the item you want to give; leave a comment claiming an item you’d like to get. Easy, fun, and green!
Free BBC Planet Earth Episode
OK, I know it’s TV Turn-Off Week, so go download this episode now and watch it next week! Amazing and award-winning documentary chronicling the gorgeous and diverse world we live in. Ends 04/26/10.
Local Celebrations
Find the nearest community and city Earth Day celebrations here; enter your zip code in the column on the right.
Celebrating Earth Day as a Family
Mighty Nest has an article about five ideas for celebrating Earth Day as a family. Great tips.
Music to Live By
Jack Johnson, singing The 3 R’s. What else could you ask for?
Billion Acts of Green
As of this writing, 31 million+ people have committed to and listed their “act of green.” Add yours to the list in the column on the right.
Insect Lore Giveaway
–This giveaway is now closed.–
Today’s giveaway is from Insect Lore. Insect Lore sells all sorts of wonderful live creepy-crawly things – yep, that’s right, live! From caterpillars and ants to tadpoles and worms, they also offer everything you need to keep your critters healthy and happy.
This giveaway is for one Butterfly Pavilion kit. It includes a two-foot reusable mesh hanging pavilion, two cups each containing three-five caterpillars and food, and instructions. Also included in the giveaway is a Butterfly Feeder, Butterfly Life Cycle stages, and Butterfly Poster.
We received our caterpillars last weekend, and they have already doubled in size! Our daughter can’t wait until they build cocoons, so we can put them into the pavilion and watch them emerge as butterflies. Your child (or you!) will love the Butterfly Pavilion kit.
You have three chances to win. Choose one or all three!
1. Visit Insect Lore and then leave a comment below, answering this question: Out of everything for sale at Insect Lore, what looks like the most fun for you and your family?
2. Subscribe to Simple Organic by email or in your feed reader. Leave a separate comment letting me know you’ve subscribed, or are already a subscriber.
3. Follow @simple_organic and @insectlore on Twitter and tweet the following. Leave a separate comment with a link to your tweet.
Enter to win a Butterfly Pavilion and accessories from @insectlore at @simple_organic in celebration of Make Week! http://bit.ly/amDqSY
This giveaway will end this Sunday, April 25, at 11:59 p.m. CST. The winner will be announced Tuesday, April 27. I hope you win!
Make Memories
Here’s your PDF for the day. You know how it works now – print it on old scratch paper, and enjoy making some memories today!
About Katie
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Insect Lore seems to have lots of really fun projects! I would try butterflies and lady bugs first.
Well my son is a huge butterfly lover (we saw our first one today on our first dandelion of the season!) and I know he’d love to have the butterfly pavilion. I think he’d like one of the butterfly posters or the finger puppet too!
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I think my son would love the catterpillars to butterflies kit, or the tadpoles to frogs kit.
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We’d love a frog kit! Great giveaway!
butterflies and ladybugs
I think the butterflies are great (probably my 1st choice) but a close 2nd would be either the praying mantis pagoda or ladybug land!
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Happy Earth Day! Loved the links, Katie. Thanks.
I have three little boys so anything that has to do with bugs is a huge hit. Right now, I think we would have a lot of fun with the ant hill.
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We’d have fun with the butterflies and the ladybugs… my daughter LOVES both of them!
Wow, what a great store! I think the butterfly garden would be my favorite & the frog hatchery being second.
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I think we’d appreciate the creature peeper – nothing like seeing them UP close.
I can’t say I love the bugs, but others in my family do.
Charmed by the Praying Mantis Pagoda!
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Would love the butterflies or the ladybugs!
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The ant farm!!
We think the butterflies and ladybugs look fun.
Fun give-away!
i already subscribe via google reader!
i tweeted!
http://twitter.com/sarahhopecosta
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As a former science teacher, I want one of everything!! My top picks would be either the carnivorous plant set or the butterflies and habitat. It all looks awesome!
Right now at my son’s age, I think we’d have tons of fun with this:
http://www.shop-insectlore.com/Frogs+Aquatic+Life/Tree+Frog+hand+Puppet.axd
But in a few years I am really hoping we get one of these:
http://www.shop-insectlore.com/Frogs+Aquatic+Life/Eco-Aquarium.axd
I think my 3 year old would love the butterfly pavillion or the earthworm nursery!
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I think that the Garden Spider Web frame would be great for our family. My daughter is afraid of spiders and most insects and the best way to get over that is to learn more about them and see them up close safely. That, and having more natural insect removers in the garden is a plus.
LadyBug Land would be our first choice! We love ladybugs around here, and after they hatched (emerged?) and grew to full size, we’d transfer them to our rosebushes to control the aphids.
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I’d have to say the earthworms, although my kids would really like the butterflies, I just think of the earthworms being hardier
I know my three girls would go bananas over the butterflies and lady bugs!
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I think the ladybug land looks really neat
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Ladybug land looks cute, I gave one away once and have wanted another since. Many, many things look cool.
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The butterfly pavilion would actually be my top item. What fun!
http://twitter.com/DansMum06/status/12655266504
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I’ve loved Insect Lore for a long time. Right now, we’d most enjoy their live bullfrog tadpoles!
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I think the Worms Café looks like the most fun for our family. We eat huge amounts of vegetables and it would be great to share the associated peelings with some worms and create a useful end product in the process!
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The Eco-Aquarium looks like the perfect addition for my son’s room. It is just the right size and I know he would love to study the frogs!