From Tadpoles to Frogs

Back in April, Lila Grace went on a field trip to a pond. Her teacher scooped up a bunch of pond sludge and had the kids sort through the gooey mud in search of tadpoles. Guess who was the ONLY child to fully put her hands in and help her class out. Miss Lila, of course. When the principal was helping my girls out of the car the next morning, she mentioned that she had heard about my mud loving daughter. It was quite a shock for Lila's teacher because because Miss Lila is usually SO reserved in class.

Since digging through mud obviously tapped into Lila on a pretty deep level, we purchased nets and had a family pond night. YUCK! That mud is so stinky and gross. There was no way any of us were getting our hands dirty. It wasn't a problem because Lila Grace came to our rescue.

Here she is with her class. . .

(notice the pearls and mud)

Here she was with us the next day.

After a month of watching our biggest tadpole grow and develop into a froglet, Lila couldn't take it anymore. Over the past two days, she's been digging into the water and can't keep her hands off the poor frog. I think the frog was in her hands, or falling out of them onto the hard deck, more than he was in the water. His tail was shrinking - possibly, because I caught my daughter holding him up to the sky by it, and Mr. Frog was getting his hop on. He needed to be set free.

Today I let Lila bring the frog in the house for some observation time and she still couldn't keep her hands off of him. He was so tolerant. Could he possibly like her attention? The frog just took it, over and over. Here he is hopping around. Before motherhood, I would have never dreamed I would let a frog hop through my house!




We packed him up, along with another very small frog who was ready to be re-introduced to nature, and released them into the pond. Here are some farewell pics.

Bye bye Mr. Frog!

We still have five more tadpoles to go. . . Lord have mercy!

Word Ring. . . Done!!

Lila Grace completed her Word Ring in April.  Thank goodness that is done.  Every night we went through her Word Ring.  Some nights were better than others.  There was a lot of push back.  I wanted her to try hard to reach the goal of completion.  It is an optional program but I knew she could do it.  Lila didn't know she could do it though.

Lila Grace isn't a confident reader but when she puts her mind to it, she reads very well.  Her 147 sight words from the Word Ring have definitely helped her along.  One doesn't realize how many "wh" and "th" words there are in the English language.  It's so frustrating for little five year olds. . . trust me!

I am so proud of my girl for sticking to her goal and finishing her Word Ring.  Only half of her class did.  She was very proud of herself.  We had a little celebration to let her know how proud we are of her.

(Miss Lila was randomly wearing Adeline's astronaut suit the night of the celebration.)


 I am sure Lila never wants to see her Word Ring again.

Happy Memorial Day!

This year, I took the time to pause and give thanks for all of those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.   I sat on the deck and watched my girls play carefree, with complete joy and happiness.  I don't know if it is because we spent some time learning about the Revolutionary and Civil Wars earlier this year or if it is just that piece of being a mother that changes one's perspective, but I value our country and its everyday freedom on a deeper level these days.


Thank you to those that gave their lives so my daughters may have days like these.