Anden's Desert Project

Date: April 20-29th

Anden was assigned to build a 

Desert Diorama

based off a book they had read.

He was adamant that it had to include all the animals from the book:

Snake

Scorpion

Kangaroo Mouse

Owl

Bat
Gila Monster
Fox
etc
etc

I told him no problem I would find pictures of each animal to include.

He corrected me.

"No Mom I want a real snake and scorpion!"

I started laughing

"Honey there's NO way you can take a real snake to school!"

He again assured me that his teacher said it was ok.
I laughed again and nodded that suuuure his teacher agreed.
Well he went on a mission to find a snake anyway.

Lucky for him we live in the desert
and there's an abundance of snakes.
Not lucky for me!
As we were driving home from church the next day
I glanced out the window on the street behind our house
and wouldn't you know there was a snake laying off to the side of the road.
I quickly debated whether I should even point it out to Anden or not.
Then I decided since I thought it was dead already
that might be my best option rather than him finding an alive snake!

"Look Anden there's a snake on the road!!"
"Mom quick STOP!!"
So I pulled over and he jumped out to go see if it was dead or alive.
We couldn't figure out if it was dead or just sleeping.
It was in perfect shape, no tire marks or any damage.
Anden and Taylee wanted to grab it and bring it in the car with us home.
UH HECK NO!

So instead we went home and I gave Anden a pair of gloves and a box
and told them they could walk back and see if it was still there.
Off they went walking with their snake capturing equipment
while still in the finest best dressed church clothes.
Yes Anden in a tie and Taylee in a dress and heels.
Shortly after they returned beaming with pride at their new pet dead snake!

Ryan and I inspected him and yes he was in fact dead.
But again not a single mark on him.
We determined he must have had a heart attack?
So off he went into a ziploc bag...
and into my garage fridge
until we figured out if he would survive the 6 days until the project was due.

Each time I opened that fridge that stupid snake scared the crap out of me!!
Who really can get used to a snake in your fridge?!
Hhmm what meat should we have today?
Bacon, Chicken or Snake?

Well a few days later we started to assemble Anden's project.

He's such a laid back kid but yet very detailed.

He picked the location and placement of every item and I glued it down.

I emailed his teacher again and made sure that a REAL (yet dead and refridgerated) snake

could come to school.

She assured me it was totally fine.

I assured her it would probably stench up her whole classroom once he opened the ziploc bag! lol

Anden was more than thrilled to take his pet snake to school

but he was still adamant he wanted more real animals in his project.

And then that's when he and Ryan found this BEAST of a scorpion.

O.M.G. keep that away from me!!

And yes it was alive.

And yes Ryan and Anden mounted it to that board while it was alive.

PUKE PUKE PUKE!

And yes I did take a video of it! lol so gross

Well the Friday finally arrived that the projects were due at school.

I drove Anden to school that day and carried it on in.

I made sure that he put the gross snake in his backpack

AND

didn't take it out until we got into his classroom.

I didn't want to cause mass hysteria in the elementary hallways when kids saw it!

Anden was SO proud of his project!

Yes he did get an A on it as well!

After school that day he had his minion of friends helping him carry the project.

I just had to laugh as everyone, boys and girls, were gathered around him begging

to get a sneek peek of the snake in his backpack.

What the heck?!  How come nobody else thinks this is disgusting?! haha