Life Around Us: Into the Woodlands!

2 March 2023

Life Around Us: Into the Woods

With the beginning of the spring months dawning and wildlife emerging from hibernation once again, it is important to learn about the life around us. What better way to do so than embracing the spirit of woodland creatures through play?

Looking around to the towering trees that surround us, we will commonly find squirrels! Known for being incredibly resourceful and sociable, these food-loving creatures enjoy discovering nature. And to make sure they get the optimal exploring experience; squirrels have adapted to use their long bushy tails to counterbalance their weight as they traverse the treetops! These swift moving animals can be found in Norse mythology as Ratatoskr - a squirrel who navigates the world tree to delivery messages for great eagles and ancient serpents. Even in mythology these scampers never run out of energy!

Just like squirrels, kids can feed their curiosity with our cute squirrel accessory set. The mask is beautifully detailed to resemble these resourceful creatures and the matching fluffy tail will give kids the playful joy experienced by every active squirrel as they nimbly play with friends. Kids will surely go nuts for this amazing fancy dress!

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Swooping through the sky and the tops of trees we can find Owls! With over 200 varied species, Owl’s are descended from some of the oldest land birds. Having evolved over millions of years, owls have become incredible hunters and have the best night vision of any animal thanks to their tube-shaped eyes. This incredible adaptation means that the position of their eyes is fixed to look straight ahead, so instead they must turn their head to look around. What is most impressive about this is that their neck can turn up to 270⁰ without moving their shoulders! But since most Owls are nocturnal anyone would be lucky to spot one of these magnificent birds whilst exploring in the woods during the day! This bird of prey is truly a spectacular animal, so there is no mystery as to why Athena the ancient Greek goddess of strategy and wisdom chose this mighty bird to represent her.

With all these facts, kids are more than ready to pretend to be wise little Owlets in our Owl Themed Cape! The shimmering brown feathered effect of the cape will ensure kids have a hoot of a time in this costume. Plus, the detail put into the raised ear enclaves and the two-tone eyes of the Owl hood really is a head turner!

Hopping out of hibernation this month are frogs! Whilst frogs can be seen jumping across the woodland floor throughout most of the year, they prefer to be found near ponds during springtime. With their fondness for water, these amphibians have long been a symbol of life in ancient Egypt as millions are born each year after the annual flooding of the river Nile. With more species being found each year, there are over 7,000 species of frog in existence with the largest living species – the Goliath frog – growing to length of 33cm and weighing 3kg!

Here at Pretend to Bee we have been inspired by the most familiar species of frog - the common frog – to create a Frog dress-up set you won’t froget! As these amphibians only have 4 digits on their front feet, our costume showcases this ribbeting fact in the frog themed gloves. Plus, a frog’s skin is particularly important in their daily life as they use it to absorb water and as a secondary method of breathing, so the green and yellow material used is embossed and textured to mimic this amphibian’s skin! The acrylic eyes used for the frog headband imitate the iconic bulge of a frog’s eyes. These bulging eyes give frogs a 180⁰ field of vision. And what is even more remarkable about frogs is that they can’t keep their eyes open when eating – one would think they are just really savouring their meal, but they actually use their eyes to help move their food around! Kids will toadally be hopping for joy in Pretend to Bee’s Frog accessory set!