Wicked Cool Natural Entertainment

We have several creeks running through our property, one of them is a man-made dyke running straight through the middle of one of our fields.  For the last couple of summers Partner #1 has built a sandbag dam to flood the field in order to irrigate it.  Super fascinating, I know, but what that means for us is that we have this awesome 2-foot deep pond totally chalk full of tadpoles and frogs, as well as our insect friends like dragon flies and water skitters! There are several places where you have to be careful where you walk so as not to squish hundreds of little tadpoles!

Last year the kid's grandparents bought each of them a kayak to use in the ponds and they have taken to using them as tadpole collectors.  They also got some butterfly nets recently and have had much better luck catching frogs now too.

Really, it's about the coolest thing ever. I often find myself envious of our kid's awesome childhood. How awesome is it that they get all this wicked cool natural entertainment to enjoy!? Who needs a play ground when you have a pond!

Oliver's head for proportion 

One of a million clouds of tadpoles

Using her shoe to catch frogs....

What a weirdo

We are planning a pot luck "Tad Pole Party" here soon and inviting a lot of the local kids and some of our fellow home school families to come armed with butterfly nets and buckets, and we'll just spend the afternoon catching critters and kayaking and splashing, all the while teaching our kids about ecosystems and frog metamorphosis like the true geeks we are....

Admit it, you're jealous.