The Last Tadpole is now a Froggie

This tadpole has been the biggest tadpole and is now our "biggest" frog. He's very, very fast.... our ADD frog!!! But the fun part of him being soo big is that his coloring and markings are very bright and clear versus our little frog that just looks brown:)


I'm waiting for our Grammie to come and see our frogs and then I think it will be time for them to find a new home. The kids really like the frogs so I might be keeping the frogs for a little longer than expected..... the kids will actually hold them now and are pretty gentle considering how old they are:)

Snapshots of our Saturday

Yes, we attempted some potty training this morning.... looks like I need to do a little more training before the "Big Boy" pants stay out!!!

Spaghetti Face!!

Good 'Ole Lydia Cheese-ing

We played for a while with our little frog....Christopher caught him over and over...
Once I thought the little guy was a goner but he was just playing dead or staying still so Chris couldn't see him!!

Even Anna held the frog today!!
And tried to catch the last tadpole:) He was too fast to get a picture of...

Fun picture where you can see the frog's details.....
it just got sunny all of a sudden

Daddy riding around Lydia

Anna and Christopher riding around
(we do a lot of bike riding each day!!!!)

Anna riding and singing
....hopefully she'll be a little more coordinated than her mother:)

Tadpole Update

We have new froggies!!!!

I have been amazed at how fast their little arms pop out!!! Really!!! We'll check them in the morning and they'll have a little arm stub on one side and then after lunch there is an arm!!!!

Look at that dirty and still a-little-pudgy hand!! Priceless.......

Ode to a Froglet

The tadpoles did very well at Grandma's...... they swam in the bug catcher, ate lettuce and dirtied up the water (enough to change it twice while we were away). As we were cleaning them up on Friday morning (as you see they needed some new water), we noticed that two had gotten their front legs..... the kids and I were soo excited that we were gong to have two more frogs:)

One the way home I was reminded that I should give the froglets something to rest on since I know that their lungs start working soon after the front legs start coming in.......

Anyway, sick kids, getting home at 8pm with dinner to eat, unpacking, and everything else, I totally forgot about adding in a stick or something. Ohhh sad, the little guys were goners when I when to transfer them into their little tadpole/froggie Tupperware bin.

Ode to An Expiring Frog, by Charles Dickens (from "The Pickwick Papers"):

Can I view thee panting, lying
On thy stomach, without sighing;
Can I unmoved see they dying
On a log,
Expiring frog!

Say, have fiends in shape of boys,
With wild hallo, and brutal noise,
Hunted thee from marshy joys,
With a dog,
Expiring frog!

And so we started with 70 tadpoles and now were down to three.... of course a lot were given away and about 20+ and a froggie were released!!! It's been fun :) And we still have three to continue to watch and care for!

Traveling with Pollywogs

So for those who are wondering how the tadpoles are fairing, I'll update you......

Before we left, I let the kids "catch" 5 of the 30 left!!! And then we released the rest and the froggie into a church member's pond on Saturday afternoon. I had one friend tell me that if all our tadpoles turned into frogs, we'd have one of the great plagues at our house...hmmm??..... no thanks :)

With the five we decided to keep, we made them a temporary home in a bug catcher and carried them to Grandma's house. This afternoon I was able to clean their water and boil some fresh lettuce for them:)

Look what we found today!!!!

So the question now is what do I do with the rest of the 20 or 30 tadpoles?? The kids have seen a tadpole turn into a frog...they get it (sort of). So I'm thinking about releasing them especially since we'll be going away soon and the river water totally made my water even more murky....hmmmmm???

We have a Froglet and Some Work to Do

We looked into our "pond" and were surprised by one of the tadpoles....he had front and hind legs....we had a couple with hind legs but this little guys already had his front ones:)


I am soo tickled that my kids actually enjoy watching the tadpoles. Although I don't encourage them doing this, Lydia and Christopher will actually stick their hands in the little "pond" and catch the tadpoles. I am constantly lifeguarding at the tadpole pool:)


Here's a better picture of the coloring of the little froglet:)But underneath the dish you can see how grimy the water in the "pond" has gotten. And I just read on my tadpole cheat sheet that I need to keep the water clean....looks like I'll be heading to the river soon:)


BTW... anyone close-by want to "babysit" the tadpoles....they're transportable:)

Tadpoles Munching

I'm very impressed with my camera's ability to get pretty tough pictures. It's funny, since having the new camera I've often thought about the goal of a picture is to capture what you're actually seeing with your own eyes...... isn't it amazing that we're trying to make something that our eyes are naturally(well some of use wear contacts) able to capture for a moment. Just another example of God's awesome details for His creation!!!

Ok...back to the point of this little post :)

Here is proof of how much the tadpoles like lettuce!! They love munching on it and riding on it:) Can you also see that one of my larger one is really sprouting his legs.... his little legs are so tiny:)

We're hoping to build a froggie habitat outside for some of the other tadpoles.....

BTW..... You can keep our Daddy is your prayers.....we're not sure what is wrong with him but he is laying down for the 2nd day in a row....which is not our Daddy's normal routine at all. Anyway, we think it's a combination of pulled back muscles and possibly food poisoning.... or maybe it's just something that he's caught somewhere....anyway, he feels a little better today than he did yesterday. But he's still in pain, tired and weak :(

The Start to our Tadpole Adventure

On Saturday we had one of our avid outdoorsmen in the church drop off a pot of tadpoles. I had asked him to find me a few when he was in the woods and spotted some......

The best guess about how many were in the pot was about 50 or so. Well, I've been giving tadpoles away in groups of 10 or so. So far I've given away over 50 and I STILL have a pot full:)

Anna and I brought a couple inside so we could watch them closer......I really wanted to create a pretty "bowl" by putting them in a cute glass pitcher with glass gems and a plastic plant. BUT the tadpoles were finding places to "Hide" and they went down into the "rocks" and couldn't get out, so the "rocks" had to go! (And I had a plant at Walmart but someone must have tossed it out of the cart b/c I didn't have it at home and it wasn't on my receipt.)


Here is one of the bigger tadpoles....his legs are already starting to form and pop out!!!!

Believe it for not the tadpoles LOVE boiled lettuce. I boiled it for 10 minutes or so, laid it out to dry, then put the extra in a baggie and into the freezer.

For those that live close and brought home some tadpoles from us..... think about keeping your frogs for a little while and we can have a "frog race" at the park or our house sometime.... won't that be fun and silly????