4 Boys + 1 Toad = 5 Hours of Fun!

You can probably imagine the scene at my house on Saturday when this little guy made the mistake of hopping across my three older sons' paths. Hubby and I were up on the deck, working on putting up posts for the railing, when I heard a squeal of, "A toad!"

I walked over to the edge and peered down at them. Sure enough, my six year old was holding a large brown toad. I smiled and went back to work.

A while later, my oldest came to the bottom of the deck and wanted to know what they should do with the toad. "Um, let it go?" I answered. "Oh, wait, bring it up here. I want to see it." So they all trooped up to the deck and brought it over for me to see. I had never held a toad that big before. It was pretty cool. "Okay, now let it go."

I watched them go back down and set the toad free in the field.

Imagine my surprise when over an hour later, they were playing with Mr. Toad again. Apparently, he had not learned his lesson the first time and had hopped right past them again. By this time, the baby had gotten up from his nap. I suggested that he would probably love to see the toad, too. Sure enough, he squealed with delight watching the poor little thing try to escape from my other boys, repeatedly. I went back up on the deck.

Then things got really fun. There's a large tray on the ground, catching the drips from our air conditioner. It was pretty full of water. They decided to watch Mr. Toad swim. Over and over again, the poor thing would swim to the edge of the tray and climb up, only to be tossed back in, like some kind of survival boot camp for toads. This delighted the baby to no end. Eventually, they got bored and walked away. But Mr. Toad hung around, right near the tray of water. So naturally, when they came back, it was time for round 2 of his swimming lessons.

Finally, they grew tired of the toad and left him. This time, he used the common sense he should have exercised hours earlier and got far, far away from there! It sure made for a fun afternoon.

Update on the poison ivy: Still there. Still itching. I am tempted to just scratch it open. It is slowly driving me insane (not that I have far to go).