Frog Derby, Baseball, Sewing, Oh My!

Last Friday night was the annual Spring Fling at Asher's elementary school. It was from 5-8p and included 2 Frog Derbys, where children brought in frogs of various shapes and sizes to race. Asher saw this last year, and knew he wanted to race a frog this year. So all week we talk about catching a frog on Friday afternoon and taking it to the Derby. On Thursday afternoon Asher caught a toad, and I don't think he realized what a big bullfrog looked like, as he was thinking that would work. He put it in a container despite me saying I didn't think that was quite the jumper he would need. On Friday, John was home early from work, before lunch I think. When I got home from my morning errands, he had already tried 4 of our 5 ponds to catch a bullfrog. We realized we should have done it at NIGHT TIME when we could spotlight them, they were just too fast to catch, even with a long net! He went around and tried all the ponds again including the 5th, and went down the hill to the creek to try to get one there! He said he must have seen 40 bullfrogs. So Asher gets home from school at 4p, and we tell him Daddy has tried to catch one, etc, etc, and Asher says he thinks HIS frog will work. He goes to the container in the shop, and the poor little toad is barely moving, much less jumping. Asher says, "Well if I set him down he opens his eyes!" We made him release the toad, and told him next year we would stay up late the night before to catch a bullfrog, and after being devastated for awhile Asher was resigned to it.

So! We get to the Spring Fling a little after 6p, and had missed the first Derby. It comes up on 7p, when the final race is going to start, and John has seen a gentleman we know, Ron, that runs the Mill we go to all the time for farm feed and supplies, and his wife works at the school and they have a boy Asher's age. Ron says his boy Trevor won 1st place in the first Derby with this huge bullfrog they have in a tupperware container. They tell us how he caught it the night before, wading waist deep in a neighbor's pond. We mention our troubles with the frog-catching, and he offers to let Asher race this champion bullfrog in the upcoming Derby! He got soooo excited! I went out to the starting circle with him, and everyone was saying, "Don't let it get away!" and what happens? It starts to slip out of Asher's grip while on the ground ready to go, and I reached down with my left hand and HELD THAT FROG DOWN so it wouldn't get away and my little man be devastated a SECOND time! Aaaaahhhh!!!! Within 10 seconds the race was on, and that frog won 2nd place for Asher!!! He would have been first, but he took a slight detour and went a longer way. Asher won $5 and a medal! We were so thankful to Ron for letting Asher race the frog. It was a HUGE deal for him and totally made his night!

Here's Ron showing Asher how to hold the frog.


Whew! That was exciting.

Saturday Asher had his first baseball game! His team won 9-7 and he had a blast, despite the 50 degree temp plus 25-35 mph winds. Eek!!! Here he is getting ready to start the game.

Here's more flip flops...

Here's my first butterfly bow...

And here's an Amelia Shirt that was an order...

I have updated my craft site, and you can link to it from the sidebar off this blog...

We have cattle now, too! 8 head, all black steers, arrived last Thursday morning. I haven't taken any pics yet.

The pups are doing great. They turned 9 weeks old last Friday, and saw the vet for their second round of shots yesterday. They all still look perfect he said, and here are their weights:

Wavy Lady (only female left): 10 lbs, 10 oz
Ben: 11 lbs, 4 oz
Radar: 12 lbs, 3 oz
Mark: 12 lbs, 5 oz
Jett: 12 lbs, 2 oz
Freckles: 11 lbs, 13 oz

We have started taking them on walks around the farm, we have a mowed pathway and all the way around is I think 1/4 mile?? They love it! Especially when we go past the bird pens!

We did sell the 2nd female to the hunter out of Minnesota, he ended up driving all this way Thursday night (12 hours!) and picked her up this past Friday morning, then turned around and drove back! His family was very excited to get her, and she will be a good fit for them.