Frog Race

We had the most incredible fun at camp yesterday. It was the last day that our friends/family from Florida were here, my kids were going with their dad that night for eight days (eight! what am I going to do with all that spare time?), and we were doing nothing more exciting than hanging out at camp, relaxing. Kenneth spent an hour and a half slow-grilling some extremely delicious barbecued chicken, Mom made her potato salad and cooked up some green beans that had been in a garden that morning, along with some homemade pickles. There was swimming, board games, card games, a fire in the fireplace...all the best of camp.

My parents decided that in addition to having my sister along for the ride, they would invite her son (who doesn't live with her, as she is not capable of caring for him--she lives in a group home). We hadn't seen him in quite awhile, but he blended in very well with the rest of us. Much of that, I think, was that we were getting such a kick out of him. He's twelve.

He was catching frogs. And he's very good at it. Not the best at *keeping* the frogs, because they would escape again and he would have to re-catch them, but man, he was fun to watch.

He inspired the rest of the kids to new heights of camp creativity. Suddenly Kira and Kristin were catching bugs in the water, to feed the frogs as a reward after the race that the kids decided to have at the end of the day. Stephen also managed to re-create an event that Mark did many years ago, namely catching a fish in a five-gallon bucket, and the bugs were for the fish as well.

At the end of the day, after dinner and final photos of the group, we got ready for the frog race. Lines were drawn, and where there were only three frogs (well, technically, two frogs and a toad), Kira and Mark decided to just cheer on while Stephen, Kristin (age 9), and Kaitlyn (16 next week) were the frog-holders.

Kaitlyn was nearly hysterical (and hysterically funny) when she had to hold her frog. She was holding it as far away as her arm could stretch, and was just making this wonderful faces and shrieking. It was great.

It took a number of false starts (meaning that Stephen's big bullfrog kept escaping and heading for freedom) before they got the contestants all lined up and released. Naturally, Stephen's won, being both at least three times the size of the other two and having had those practice runs. Kristin's got to just before the finish line and stopped cold, so she had to nudge it with her sandal before it finally made a little waddle across and then stopped again. And Kaitlyn's headed completely off course, veering away to the woods.

There was a lot of screaming and yelling and laughter, and I got some great photos (which I'm not going to share because none of these were my kids and I don't have the right to put them out on the 'net) and we all had an awesome time. What a way for two city kids from Florida to end a vacation in Maine. Frog races. Yeah. mk