Hey guys! Hope you’re all doing well on what seems like day 58,562 of COVID-19 quarantine. We  started “online distance learning” this week for Cooper and it’s been great so far. It’s definitely helped things feel a bit more normal having a schedule of some sort. Another thing keeping us feeling normal is good old trusty Amazon Prime. Shipping hasn’t been quite as prompt as usual, but they’re still keeping us stocked in the random(and I do mean RANDOM) items we’ve been ordering. Here’s a peek into my latest Amazon purchases:

Praying Mantis Eggs

Yes, you read that right! Praying Mantis eggs! Cooper loves bugs(always has), and we already have a Praying Mantis “house”(from when his Kinder class hatched the mantis eggs), so I thought we’d hatch some eggs at home. It’s science related, perfect for springtime, and Praying Mantises are super cool.

Here’s the link to buy:

Praying Mantis Egg Case

This is what arrived:

The cup was in a little brown box, and inside the cup are those little brown egg pods, and then some straw material.

The Praying Mantises will begin to hatch in 2-6 weeks. It gives Cooper something to excitedly check for each morning. Each eggs case is guaranteed to hatch, and they estimate that you will have 50-200 mantises. Once they hatch, you set them free- they will eat each other if you don’t. If you’re lucky a few will stick around in your yard and eat the bad bugs in your garden.

Also, if you’ve never seen a baby Praying Mantis, let me tell you, they are CUTE! So tiny, and so cute. This is a fun, inexpensive, and educational thing to do with your kids. Highly recommend.

You can definitely keep the egg cases in the cup that they are shipped in, but we put them in this bug enclosure since we already had it:

The bug house is also available on Amazon here:

Praying Mantis Mansion

We are excited to see our little mantises hatch!

Pogo Stick

Next item I recently Primed was this pogo stick:

Pogo Stick For Kids Ages 5+

My baby nephew turned 6 last week and we sent him this as part of his birthday gift. He’s a super physical kid who can do anything, so we thought he would have fun with it. I got to see a video of him using it the other day and he looked like he was having fun!

Caterpillar Refill Cup

Hahaha! See I told you guys it was a random mix of items! I Primed caterpillars 🙂 We do this every Spring. It’s really neat to watch the whole caterpillar to butterfly cycle, and then setting them free is so fun! I always order through Insect Lore. The link is here:

Insect Lore 5 Live Caterpillars

It arrived in a box marked “live insects”. It looks like this when you open it:

Those are our 5 little caterpillars in there! They are pretty still when you first unpack them, but after 24 hours they start moving around quite a bit, The food is in the bottom of the cup, so you don’t have to do anything. You just wait until they form their chrysalis on the lid if the cup, then transport them to a safe enclosure. Then you just wait until you see the butterflies emerge from the chrysalis. After their wings are dry you set them free.

We have a mesh habitat already since we’ve done this before. If you don’t have one, I would recommend getting this kit that includes the caterpillars and the mesh enclosure:

Insect Lore Caterpillar to Butterfly Kit

This company only ships Painted Lady butterflies, which are native to ALL of North America, so you don’t have to worry about upsetting the natural butterfly population in your area. 

Again, this is another fun, educational thing to do with your kids. They’ll learn about this stuff from books at school, but it’s a entirely different experience when they get to see the process live and in person. I also think it gives them an appreciation for all living creatures, even the small ones. 

Paint By Sticker

I came across these Paint by Sticker books and thought they looked fun. I’ve been trying to incorporate some creative time into our “school” days, and I thought these would be a good option. I bought the “Under the Sea” book, but there are also Zoo Animals, Unicorns, Dinosaurs, etc. This link will have the other options listed when you scroll down the Amazon page:

Paint by Sticker Kids: Under the Sea

This sticker book is great for fine motor skills and dexterity. Plus, it’s fun to see your picture come together:

Scratch Art Activity Book

Another purchase to supplement our creative time was this Scratch Art Activity book:

Jurassic and Beyond Scratch and Sketch

You’ve probably seen this Scratch Art paper before- it’s paper coated in this black scratcher material(sort of like a lottery scratcher). You scrape away at the black coating to reveal a design, or color underneath. This book also gives you an educational fact about dinosaurs on each page:

You can use your scratch art paper to replicate the drawing on the fact page, or just draw whatever you want. There are other design books too:

Pet Shop Scratch and Sketch

Scratch and Sketch Robots

Cooper loves these books!

My Favorite Toothpaste

This is the BEST toothpaste. I’ve been using it for years and it keeps my teeth white despite my coffee and tea addiction. Buy it, use it, and your smile will thank you! This link is for a 3 pack, so each tube comes out to about $11. It is a bit pricey for toothpaste, but it’s money well spent.

Rembrandt Intense Stain Removal

It beats the bleaching strips and it doesn’t make my teeth super sensitive. I can’t say enough about this toothpaste!

Workout Shorts

I took a pole fitness class with some friends a couple months ago. They recommended that you wear workout shorts and instead of pants so you’re not slipping down the pole. Well, I didn’t have exercise shorts, so I just wore some plaid pajama shorts! I laughed it off, but I thought maybe I should buy some workout shorts since apparently I’m the only person who doesn’t own a pair. I found this pair on Amazon for less than $15, so now I own a pair of workout shorts…even if I just wear them to sleep.

VALINNA Workout Shorts

They’re cute and really comfortable. They come in 7 different color choices too.

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Well, that’s all I’ve Primed recently. I’m definitely starting to miss shopping at actual stores…but until things return to normal, I’m so thankful for Amazon Prime! What have you been Priming lately? Leave me a comment so I can see the randomness of everyone else’s orders 🙂

Thanks for reading!