Tadpole Hunting.

I knowwww we're far behind in our curriculum studies. But it would be criminal to stay indoors on a beautiful day like today turned out to be. We returned to the same place we went last year in July to see what the frogs look like in the stream right now. They are 3 to 5 inch long tadpoles without any legs at all. I would swear that they're about 8 inches long at their longest before becoming frogs later in the year.

Elf and Emperor waded in the water and no matter how hard they tried, they couldn't catch one in the ice cream bucket. So I wandered in as well. It is VERY slippery and slimy in this creek, and full of trash. I kept thinking it would be just my luck to step on a syringe or something... but you know, every child should have some carefree days every now and then to look at stuff like this.

I finally caught a three-inch long tadpole. Like his brothers and sisters, he's a bullfrog with a HUGE head. We let him swim about for a bit and showed him off to the other people in the park. Emperor named him August, perhaps because he hopes to see him later in the summer. Or perhaps he is naming him after his very fave Roman emperor. He prayed over him before we put him back into the water, that he would be safe and that we would get to see him later. :)