The Tale of the Toad

The other day, Brother came running into the house screaming and yelling. I know, I know, this isn't unusual, but this time he came in carrying a toad. A TOAD!!!!!

I tried to convince him that he needed to let it go. Really I did. But he insisted on keeping it. He wanted to keep it as his pet. (A toad....for a pet?!?!)

So he put the toad in a cooler and off he went to get something to prop the lid open with. He came back with a little screwdriver.


Now I am thinking....how do I convince this kid that he really needs to let this toad go? I am sure that the thing will be dead before morning if he keeps it, and even though I can't stand the things, I do have 1/2 a heart, and really didn't want to see the thing suffer.

Tancy stopped by for a minute, and even she was excited about the stupid thing. She told the kids what toads eat, and sent them on their merry way looking for crickets. (which are in abundance in our garden right now!!)

Well, the morning came, and both the kids ran outside to see if it was still alive. And it was! I was shocked!!

We were late for school that morning b/c the kids were so involved in the toad that they didn't want to get ready for school.

Brother even wanted to take it to school. I decided that he ( the toad ) better stay home.

I came home for a minute around 11:00 and found the toad sitting in the straight sun. I thought he would be dead very shortly. I thought very hard about just letting the toad go. Brother would never know....I could just say that the toad hopped out. Let the poor thing be on its merry way. But then I knew that Brothers heart would be crushed.

So I moved the toad into the shade and went back to work.

The next day, the neighbor boys come over and the excitement starts all over again about the toad. They decide to make the cooler into a great home for the toad. They put in a bowl (from my KITCHEN!!!!) for water and set TONS more crickets into the cooler.

Later on I even found out they decided to "play" with the toad and were throwing him up into the air. (I knew I should have let it go when I had the chance!!!)

The next day, the kids were at school in the playground, and Brother lifted up a rock, and guess what he found?? A FROG!!!!

What you ask did we do with the frog??

Well we took it home of course!

So not only do we have a toad, but now we have a frog.

Dada has decided that she can hold the frog. Its not that gross.

So all weekend the kids have played with frog and Ben. Oh yes, the Toad has a name now. Brother named his toad....Ben.

Ben lives in the garage....in his cooler.

As of today, Ben is still alive (which I am totally surprised by!!). I'm not quite sure what happened to the frog. I'm sure its around here.....somewhere.