Waiting for the giant smoking caterpillar

Todd was out walking around in the back of our house this evening and came across something that he'd never quite seen before.  He yelled to me to come outside - so I waddled out in my moose pajama pants to find this:

It's a giant ass mushroom! Or more commonly known as the Giant Poofball Mushroom. Look at the size of this thing! I'd seen it from my second floor window for the last week or so, but honestly thought someone had lost a volleyball over their fence. Never imagined it'd be a giant ass mushroom! The thing is like a bowling ball. After having poked around on the internet for a bit, I found out that this guy is a teeny one! There are pictures of people holding ones six times this size! There are several dozen smaller ones scattered about - I'm eager to see how big they grow before we move out...


We found several more large ones in the area. Looks like our recent rainfall has made them grow a little fast for their skins....do mushrooms have skin?

Our next door neighbor, Natasha, came over to check them out and being the devout little soccer player that she is, she decided to give one a good kick - and was rewarded with a big poof of mushroom cloud! Here's a look at the insides of the one she kicked.

The texture was like the softest sponge in the world. Really gross. However turns out that they're edible when immature and the spores haven't yet formed (I will totally take their word on that one - don't do the whole fungi thing). I'm pretty sure this one has gone to spore from the looks of it. All the pictures I found online of the ones people were eating are solid white throughout.


Here's Tasha holding one of the bigger mushrooms we found. I tried to get her to smile for the shot, but I think she was a tad bit concerned about the spider that had just crawled out of the middle of the mushroom. She was a trooper though and held it for the picture! :)

This kid seriously rocks. Since she was over we hung out for a bit, made pom poms, watched Futurama and played with some clay.  I made a teeny Mobee.  Isn't he cute?

About 30 seconds after I took this picture the tail broke off. So now it's a pig.


Have some exciting news to share with you! That will be another post though, as my husband is FORCING me to play the new Call of Duty with him. And from my understanding it is my responsibility as a good wife to make sure he doesn't get capped in the ass by some crazy Cuban guy with a AK-47.


So my dear friends, until next time... ♥