Beware of the Frog

The other day we found a frog (dirty old brown cane toad to be exact) crouched down a hole in our backyard that our totem tennis pole normally goes into. James put his hand in the hole thinking it was a stone and then screamed and realized it was a toad (for the purposes of this story the toad will be referred to as "the frog"). Anyway, after the scream I made him go and wash his hands straight away and Sienna was crying because she was scared of it. I did not want to get it out of this hole myself as we were in the middle of something else so I grabbed a spare brick and covered up the hole so he would stay put and I would worry about it at another time.

Fast forward to 6am the next morning and Sienna comes into my room saying that the frog had escaped. I asked her how on earth it could escape when their was a brick over the hole. She said James took the brick off to have a look and it jumped out of the hole and they both ran inside screaming and closed the door. Late on when I came out to breakfast the kids said we've made a sign Mum so we remember the frog is outside and they stuck it to the door. I saw it and it made me laugh, but now I have a dirty old brown cane toad on the lose in the backyard.

When the kids wanted to go out to play in the backyard I convinced them that the frog would hop away and we basically forgot about him for 2 days until this afternoon when I heard screaming and 2 kids running inside the house...the frog, he's outside. I won't bore you with the intricate details of how this frog (aka yukky cane toad) came to be now be no longer breathing however, it did involve one brave mummy, a spade, a big bucket and a garden hose. After I had taken care of the toad problem the kids yelled out something like "mummy you are a hero" or words to that effect which made me smile....their mummy had come to their rescue yet again. I certainly did not need that in my life this afternoon but as the ordeal was now over Sienna walked inside and ripped down the sign. Kids have a really funny way at looking at things and that's the end of my frog/dirty old cane toad story for today. Credit for the signage I believe goes to James (8 years old) for the hand writing and Sienna for the picture of the frog (5 years old).