Frog Day 2008

I've been participating in Frog Day for about 5 years now. This year was different because I took part as a teacher AND as a parent. Every year, 2nd grade kicks off the year studying about frogs' life cycles and habitats. The final day, every student brings a frog or a toad to school for a good old fashioned frog hopping contest!

The mighty hunters!

I should preface all of this with the fact that Kaela wants nothing to do with frogs. This made hunting for and hopping the frog a bit difficult. Luckily Brady was thrilled with the idea, so last Thursday after school we headed out with our net, ice cream bucket and camera in hand. The frogs weren't too cooperative...maybe it had something to do with Brady yelling and Kaela complaining loudly! Duane managed to get ahead and somewhat alone. Kaela and I continued our search farther back. I happened to look up and saw Duane dancing a jig! He had found one, but was having a hard time convincing it to go in the bucket. Turns out he had caught a leopard frog. My experience with this type of frogs is that they are fast and hard to hold onto. This one proved to be no different.

Here froggy froggy! Come froggy!

Duane was really hoping to catch a BIG bullfrog, but there were none to be found at 4:30 in the afternoon, and none of us felt like going out at sunset...especially Kaela!

We are happy to report that Frog Day went off without a hitch. No frogs escaped (yes that has happened several times in the past) and none were eaten by another frog (yep! that has happened, too!). Kaela never had to touch her frog which made her very happy. Dad rescued her (and a few other kids) by hopping their frogs for them. Her frog hopped 33 inches! The hop of the day went to a bullfrog who hopped 132 inches!

Brady is already looking forward to next year when he gets to have his own Frog Day. I'm sure he'll be willing to stick it out long enough to catch a bullfrog!

Cousins Come Calling

About the only good thing that came from Roger's death last Friday is that Duane's brother, Dwight and his beautiful family came to visit. Hadleigh had just been here a couple of weeks before, but we hadn't seen Lauran and McKinley since May. Kaela was once again in her element. She loves to entertain and keep Hadleigh busy and was constantly asking if she could hold McKinley. Dwight and Lauran said she was welcome to come and stay anytime!

Brady insisted on taking a picture. It took him quite a while to get one, as is evidenced by the look on Hadleigh's face!

Grandma Mary and Hadleigh

Cuties - Kaela and McKinley

Back to School!

The kids and I agree (though I've had a lot more 'first days' than they have!) that yesterday might have been our best first day of school ever! I have a wonderful, very small class of only 10 kids. Kaela is in the other 2nd grade class and already loves her teacher Mrs. Schrag. Brady is in 1st grade and thinks his teacher Mrs. Brandewiede is great.

I had been working very hard to get everyone back into that school mode schedule. We were working our way back to bedtime by going to be a little earlier each day and trying to get them up a little earlier. Then, the Olympics hit! I personally have spent way too many nights staying up late just to hear that National Anthem play as the US brings home another gold. I still get excited thinking about the 4x200 relay when we beat the French!

Here are the usual 'first day of school pics'. Brady refused to wear anything other than one of his "good" T-shirts! We have PE and music everyday, so he insists on being ready to run.

Minnesota

Let me start by saying that Vergas, Minnesota is a LOOONG way from Kansas. We left very early on a Saturday morning and arrived 12 hours later at Loon Lake. Along the drive, we managed to see license plates from 33 states (including Alaska!) and 3 Canadian provinces.

Our cabin was a bit neglected but, after a good vacuuming, cleaned up pretty nicely. Now, Minnesota touts themselves as the "Land of 10,000 Lakes". I would like to see the definition of what they constitute as a 'lake', as several named lakes we saw would only qualify as relatively small ponds around here! Their lakes are almost entirely glacial. There are no rivers, streams or spillways feeding them. The water (at least the water we saw) was pretty much clear and the lakes can be very deep. Much different than Marion Reservoir!

Duane and Mary (his mom) were disappointed in the fishing. We went with high hopes and had heard stories of the BIG walleye and northern pike in Minnesota. Unfortunately, they didn't catch much.

Doesn't he look thrilled!

We had some boat trouble, but found a very nice couple who ran a boat repair in a nearby town. They knew we were on vacation and fixed our boat in record time. After that, we gave up on fishing and just spent time relaxing and pulling the kids around in the tube. The weather was beautiful and the smores were wonderful!

Kaela, Brady and cousin Garret.

For those who don't know, my parents are spending at least 6 weeks in Minnesota, so we joined them (along with my brother and his family) for their first week.

The kids had a ball swimming and fishing for perch. I enjoyed just sitting around relaxing. I read more on this vacation than I have had time to in what seems like forever. (By the way, I LOVE the "Twilight" series of books by Stephenie Meyer...in case you're looking for something to read.)

Brady was able to catch perch right off the dock.

Some pics of Kaela and Brady with their cousins Garret and Tatumn.

What a couple of hams!

I'm SO far behind, I may never catch up!

I have heard from some of you about the fact that I'm not keeping up with our Blog. I guess I'm just thrilled that someone is actually looking at it! There will be more coming very soon - I promise.

I know you aren't interested in any excuses, but you're going to get them anyway. I shut down the computer when we went on vacation and when we returned, it wouldn't start back up! So, it took a few days to repair, but is up and running now. Also, school starts in 3 days and I have been busy trying to get my classroom ready.

My final and most legitimate excuse is that Duane's step dad very unexpectedly passed away last Friday. We believe he had a massive heart attack. He collapsed as he came back to work from his lunch break. We could certainly use any prayers, as this has been a hard time for our family.

Enough with my excuses! Please don't give up on me...I will get some vacation stuff posted this weekend!