Pet praying manti are not for the faint of heart.

Yesterday, Alex noticed a praying mantis clinging to the outside of one of our windows. She got all excited and asked if we could catch it and keep it. We've caught them before but we have never kept one because I wasn't ready for the responsibility of feeding it. We had one as a pet when I was growing up named Mr. Green Jeans. My Dad would catch live flies for him to eat or take him outside to catch his own. That's right, praying mantis are carnivorous little critters. So I make a home for it in a jar and tell the kids to go looking for rolly pollies or something to feed it. Alex comes running back into the house after just a few seconds with another large praying mantis in her cup, "they can be friends!" she exclaims. For a brief second it occurred to me that they would probably not be friends but for some reason I brushed it aside and found them some little bugs crawling on my roses for their supper. Alex claimed the bigger, brighter green one as her's and named it "Julie" at first and then finally for whatever reason, decided "Sarah" was a much better fit. Johnny wanted to name his "Green Guy" but since the name triggered Alex's memory of me telling her about my pet praying mantis she convinced Johnny to go with "Green Jeans" instead. And since it still had his favorite color "Green" in the name, he was satisfied.
It was just about dinner time so I put Sarah and Green Jeans away on the far end of the kitchen so the kids wouldn't be distracted while eating. During dinner though I noticed they were awfully close to each other so I took a peek and realized Sarah was missing her head and Green Jeans was happily nibbling away on what he figured was his dinner. I was so appalled. I quickly put the jar out in the garage so the kids wouldn't have to see the carnage happening between their new found friends. About an hour later Green Jean's tummy was quite full. When I finally told Alex what had happened she first got a very sad, hurt look on her face and wanted to know why. Then she became quite angry with Green Jeans and drew pictures of him titled "bad green jeans praying mantis". Then she entered denial and made up her mind that actually, it was Sarah who ate Green Jeans so her praying mantis was still the one pet left. Then she accepted it and decided to name the last standing praying mantis "Sarah Jean" so that she and Johnny could share it. This cracks me up because my very good friend who moved so far away to Florida also has the name Sarah Jean, subconsciously Alex must be telling you to MOVE BACK ALREADY! So anyway, I was out later that night with Alex, trying to teach her how to ride a 2-wheeler when we came across a grasshopper. Alex catches it, puts it in her bag on the front of her bike and takes it home for Sarah Jean's next meal. Maybe we should name it "Audrey II" because I feel like Seymour from the Little Shop of Horrors, I don't know how much more of this I can take. Last night Alex had nightmares about the whole thing and I told her I was letting it go. She woke up this morning, ran downstairs and out to the garage to make sure her precious pet was still around begging me to let her keep it. This morning the grasshopper was "smaller" according to Alex. The greedy green devil bit part of it's head off and left it for dead. I cleaned out the large square glass vase it is living in for now but decided I should probably let Alex be the one to let it go so he can find his next meal on his own. No more pet praying manti in this house.