Hotel for Frogs

The cherubs, like most normal kids have a frog fetish. They love chasing frogs, catching frogs, following them around, drawing pictures of them, etc. Recently, cherub 2 had caught two frogs in his bug catcher and he played with him all day. We convinced him at the end of the afternoon to set them free~ explaining they live in nature and can not live indoors with us.

About a week later I was going to the bathroom at midnight in our upstairs bathroom when something jumped over my leg! Stifling a startled scream, I found that this little jumper was a frog! Hubby rescued the frog setting it free into the yard. In the am, over breakfast, I told the cherubs of the amazing story about the frog that made it upstairs to our bathroom. I asked them if anyone had any idea how that could happen? Cherub 2, all guilty-eyed, giggled and told me that the frog had been living in his bedroom for a week and must have gotten free. WHA? That poor thing had no food! I made sure to hide how hilarious I thought this was so he didn't make a habit out of bringing little creatures home then decided it was time to find a new way to enjoy our frogs...

Off on our recent camping trip with FIL, MIL & BabySis, the cherubs and I spotted a "Hotel for Frogs". A little copycat from the movie Hotel for Dogs, we were enthralled with that handmade wooden box that had been painted lovingly and was in someones garden. This hotel welcoming all the local frogs. I suggested to the cherubs that we build one of our own.

The cherubs & I, joined by our neighbor friend, got busy recently on a Saturday afternoon. We picked through our old wood, broke out the paint and planned out our own original version of "The Hotel for Frogs". While I was spreading mulch (and to keep them busy) I told them they needed to have a meeting to decide together what their roles would be in the building process, what the design would look like and how they would work together-in harmony (no small feat for the cherubs sometimes). Neighbor friend made a "blue print" of the hotel, cherub 3 insisted the hotel must resemble a "castle", cherub 2 wanted to design a "flag" and cherub 1 was the "manager". Working together, settling minor disputes and giggling ALOT they produced the be all of hotels!

Here's a picture from part-way through the process:


Of course, in true cherub form, I learned later that they had added a "slide" for the frogs~ for the frogs entertainment of course. Unfortunately, this slide was catapulting the frogs from quite the height. The slide came down after our "you want the hotel to be a place where they come to visit, somewhere they can be safe" talk. (Needless to say, not too many frogs have visited.)