Birds, Frogs, and Toads

I have been trying to do more outside with the kids while it is really nice in the morning and one of the things that they love is swinging on the swing set next to our house. I was hesitant to let them play on the swings for a long time because they don’t have the little kid seats that they cant fall out of and I didn’t want any one, especially Kaci, to fall out and get hurt. I wasn’t too worried about Colton because he is older and has less chance of jumping out while the swing is still moving. Now we play there several times a week for about an hour or so. Because the swings are for big kids Colton and Kaci had to learn a new way to play with them, so I showed them how to “Frog Swing”. Kaci makes me giggle though because she takes me to literally about the whole frog thing and every time she swings this way she says “ribbit, ribbit” because she is being a frog. These pictures were taken from my cell phone so I apologize for the bad quality.


Did you ever see two cuter little frogs?
The other day while they were swinging like this I was chopping some weeds and found a baby bird that had fallen out of it’s nest. I could see it’s parents in the tree above me but there was no nest so I am not sure where he came from. He must have been in the process of “flying 101” or something because he could fly a few feet at a time. I thought that I had hit it with the hoe so I picked it up to see if it was ok. It seemed fine so I took it over and showed the kids. Kaci was too busy swinging to care very much, but Colton was fascinated by the little bird and really wanted to hold it. I let him and was very impressed with how soft and gentle he was with it.


I let him hold it for a while and then we took it and put it back where we found it because the parents were getting pretty nervous. I told Colton that the bird had to go home to his
Mama and Daddy and he said “oh to take a nap?” I told he yes this is exactly why he needed to go home, the poor sleepy little bird! The next day while we were playing Colton went over to the weeds and asked “Where’s mine bird?” I told him that it was back up in the tree with his parents and I really hope that is the case!
Yesterday Weldon and I took the kids to the racquet ball court and we all ran around and played for a while. Then Weldon played a racquet ball game against Ezra so the kids and I played out side on the grass. While we were there we found a toad. I really like toads, call me strange but I think they are kind of cute. Any way we showed Colton and he wasn’t to sure what to think at first.

Just checking out the toad.

After a while he warmed up to it and I showed him how to hold it. here he is petting it. After he held it for a while we put it back in the grass but it was just impossible for this little boy to leave it alone! He chased that poor toad all over just catching it and holding it for a few minutes then letting it go again for a while before he would re-catch it. I think he had lots of fun, and the toad made it through just fine too, I had to remind Colton a few times to be super soft, but for the most part he was very careful. Kaci didn’t want to touch the toad or even get too close to it, so she stayed a safe distance away and would “ribbit” at it every once in a while.

We went and visited my Grandma Shurtz the other day and had a good time there. Colton even got to climb the tree, I have never let him up there before and he was thrilled, but I was a nervous wreck the whole time. I know that when I was his age I was scampering about in that tree, but it about gave me fits to see him doing it! He had no fear at all and he climbed all over that tree, and I only had to climb up and get him one time. The tree is that most magnificent climbing tree that there ever was. It is a mulberry tree and it is HUGE, I asked my grandma how old it was and she said that it was 62 years old. I had fun getting up there with him in my old tree house and looking around. I apparently have developed a fear of heights in the years that I have not been up there because it seemed really high off the ground, but Colton just loved it. Here he is sitting on one of the lowest branches pretending to fly like a bird.  The first thing he did once he was in the tree was go to the tree house. I was sitting in a chair in the shade talking to Grandma when all of the sudden he shouts "Mama! I'm peeing!!" sure enough he was up there peeing over the side of the tree house. I laughed because only a boy would climb a tree and look down and think "Gee, it would be so fun to pee over this side from so high up!"  silly kid! Kaci kept trying to climb up the ladder to the tree but there was no way I was letting her lose up there, not for a few years anyway!!