Your yard is probably like mine right now. After a week of rain, it's more of a science project than a sanctuary, with scores of insects ranging from freakishly fascinating to totally gross. (I've got slugs the size of man fingers back there.)

However, since Saturday, my sons and I have been observing this spider. A quick Google search told me it's just called a garden spider, and pretty common for this time of year in Wisconsin. However, it's the first time I saw one in my yard.

"Charlotte" (we've been pronouncing it "Char-lot" in a fake accent that ranges between Spanish, French and British) is about two inches long. She built a massive web in my irises, and every time it rains, she diligently rebuilds it.

Yesterday, Kai caught a moth with his butterfly net and tossed it into her web. As a winged insect, it got caught in the sticky silk immediately, and within a split second, Charlotte snagged it, bit it in the neck and began to wrap it into a neat little package until it was, as 5-year-old Kai put it, "the size of a booger."

The fun continued this morning, when Kai noticed a small army of ants feasting on a dead cicada. He insisted I look at it with him -- as close as my squeamishness could allow -- and discuss the fact the cicada's face was half-munched.

Lunch, anyone?