Frog and toad hunting has been this weeks evening pastime.
It is HOT outside during the day and this gives our boys something fun to do when it cools off.
Access to ponds or creeks…We have both in our backyard and many more on the golf course across the street.
Transportation…We walk or use the critter mobile golf cart.
Lights…We use headlights and flashlights and even golf cart headlights.
Nets…Do we have nets! We have short-handled and long-handled and large holed and small holed. We are even willing to reach in.
My boys tell me this is a “smaller” bullfrog.
Container…We use a big tote.
Sense of humor…Peter likes to take “frog orders” before he heads out. I say I would like a green tree frog and his brothers might say a bullfrog. Peter especially likes to watch people open the tote and see how many he has brought home. Below is poor Mitchell not expecting dad to pull giganto bullfrog out.
An ability to say goodbye…With the hopes of seeing you again in the pond behind our home. This took years to perfect as saying goodbye to “caught critters” is very hard for little boys.
Peter may have been kissing this little guy on a dare from big brothers.
Big brothers can be especially cantankerous.
Camera…It is much easier to say goodbye if you have a photo to remember your new friends.
Potato brush and soap…Have it at every entrance to the house for the “Frog Hunters” to use before entering their home!
Thanks for letting me share,
“All that makes you, smile, laugh, think, love, cry or cry laughing.”
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All that makes you... 
My brother and I used to catch frogs and keep them in a small plastic pool in the backyard. They managed to survive in there, and we kept them until we got bored, and then took them back to the pond. At least that’s what’s I’ve decided to remember.
It sounds as though your boys have grown up with a healthy respect for nature. I like this post, especially the kissing picture.
Thanks for coming by and they do love nature. They are such good boys but keeping them away from potential, “flesh eating bacteria” has been the bain of my existence. 😉
I kept painted turtles in same blue plastic pool. I used a rowboat and caught them with fishing nets for days during my childhood. They might get some of this from me. 🙂
I love the part about taking ‘frog orders’ … LOL! It’s so nice to hear about kids doing fun, outside stuff, especially of the ‘nature’ kind. So many never have these experiences, and they are really missing out. Great post, Abbie! ~ Julie 🙂
Thanks, and it takes effort. As you know I grew up on farms and also lived in town for part of my childhood and I remember a boy slipping into a creek and getting his foot wet. He started crying, we thought his foot was in a trap, and then he wailed, “IT’S ALREADY USED WATER!”
Good Lord! I use that phrase a lot when someone is acting like a baby. I remind my kids often that the tap water came from a toilet, and thank God for modern science and clean water, don’t want to share with your brother? I then remind them they shared my uterus and swam around in each others pee and God help you if you act like you don’t want to be seen with your mom because I WILL announce, “Get over here! I am your mom and “I POOPED” you out of my “butt.”
Just keeping them real. Besides a little healthy fear of me is good since we don’t beat kids any more. 😉
This blog entry was like a big slice of Americana with a dollop of nostalgia (leave it to beaver style) on top. And that pic of your son kissing the frog was precious. How long did you wait to sanitize his lips after that pic was taken? 😉
Hey, I have an idea. I loved your last post about kids not doing as much outdoors and not being allowed to have the same experiences we did when we were kids. I haven’t done this before but what would you think about us each putting the others story as our next post? I would like to have your last blog post as my “guest post” and you could put our “frog hunting” story up to show a fun activity for the kids to do to actually get outside these summer evenings. 😉 I have been wanting to have a “guest blogger” and our two stories just seem to gel. Just an idea. Have been wanting to try something new.
Sanitizer…I hate sanitizer! Ha, ha. I am a soap and water kind of girl. I have to be in a car and wanting to eat with my hands to use hand sanitizer. Ok, and flu season. 😉