things that slither and hop...

The boys have been begging us to get them a pet for a while now.  It is constant.  And they are relentless.  I hope they find a career that they can focus on with this intensity.  They want a dog.  A cat.  A guinea pig.  It appears that anything will do.  We say no.  They ask again.  John has even written letters requesting a dog and outlining the duties that he will take care of.  The letter was adorable.  But the answer is still no.  However, the forces of nature conspired together last week and I was in the running for the coveted mother of the year award.

Last week, Mark found a snake in our front garden.  Ewwwww.  He put it in a plastic container and left it for the boys to find when they came home from school.  They were in heaven.  It was awesome.  Can he live in the house?  Big N-O.  The garage.  Still NO.  Concerned for the snake's happiness, John and Morgan (our neighbor) built the snake a contraption from two boxes and a cup.  They spent hours and a whole roll of packing tape on it. 

It was really fun for them.  And I loved watching their creativity and team work play out on this project.  Unfortunately, the snake was able to slither out of the boxes so he is back in the plastic bin now.  But the kids had a great time creating this home for him.  Which now we can't seem to get rid of so it is in my front hallway taking up space.

While the kids were playing with the snake they decided to search for other creatures.  They were able to find AND capture a toad.  But they were calling it a frog, because Luke likes frogs better than toads. 

Luke spent a lot of time picking up and kissing the frog.  Ewwww.  The kids also caught a grasshopper, which they put in the container with the frog and watch the frog eat the grasshopper.  double ewwww.  But they loved it.  They then created a habitat for the frog.  They brought both the frog and the snake onto our yard and created sign for their petting zoo.  They elected Luke to stand on the street (sometimes it stinks to be the youngest) and hold the sign up trying to entice people to come. 

Yes, he was outside playing in his pjs all day.  I don't care sometimes.  The major flaw in their marketing plan was that we live on a cul-de-sac and no one and I do mean no one comes down our street unless they live there.  So they had no business for their petting zoo.

We had to shut down the fun so that John could get ready for his baseball game.  And much to everyone's dismay, the frog was able to get out of his container and jumped away.  Which made Luke cry and cry and cry.  He keeps telling me how much he misses his friend frog.  I keep seeing the frog/toad in our front garden so I'm sure we will catch it again.  For now the snake is still in the container but we are going to let it go so it doesn't die on our watch. 

Once the snake is gone, I'm sure I'll loose my title as best mom ever to the boys.  And I know for certain the badgering for a pet will begin in earnest again.  However, it was nice for the boys to have "pets" to play with.  Even if they slither and hop...