kaleidoscoping chaos...: Flood + Frogs + Friends = Fun

No, we are not talking about 2 of the 10 plagues... come on people!

It is June, Passover was months ago! (remember my Passsover posts - see here, here & here)

Yesterday was Humpday Hijinks No. 3 - Destination the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens. We went with our buddies over at My Adventures with Buster Yellow. Always, we had big big plans. We all got up extra early, got ready super fast and left extra early so that we could be at the gardens at 9:30am and have the opportunity to see the flowers blooming on the water lilies. This is the main event over there at the Aquatic Gardens.

So what are these Aquatic Gardens anyway? It is a protected area comprised of ponds, marshes, bogs and rivers, overflowing with wild life and nature. There are a number of trails and a boardwalk that you can explore. We were very excited! Our theme was FROGS! We were going to look for tadpoles and frogs and then come home and have snacks and crafts - all frog inspired! Whoop whoop for us!

What we did not know is that approximately 4 times a year, the water floods at high tide. What that means is that all the "paths" become impassable and you can just sort of get to see the aquatic gardens from the edge of the park... Yep, yesterday was one of those four times...

Start kaleidoscoping! We were there... we weren't going home so we walked where we could. The boys ran where they could. They tried rock throwing into the pond, climbing a big tree, picking up goose feathers, fighting with sticks, jumping off logs, chasing each other in circles and yes, Jonah even had to jump in the pond puddles on the path... he just couldn't help himself.

We tried to get them to see, feel, and hear the nature. The butterflies flying right by us, the flowers, the fish, the birds, and the bugs... they thought the bugs were cool.

The rangers were really friendly and nice. Ranger Alexis brought us into the "bookstore" which has a tiny little play area. The kids liked that. They did the matching game on the wall. Rebecca had brought two great books, Tadpoles & Frogs and In the Pond. So we sat down on the lily pad stools and tried for some story time. That sort of worked for like 4 minutes. Then Ranger Alexis gave it a shot - She brought out The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That - Would you rather be a Pollywog? Vera really liked that one, but the boys just wanted to go and do!

We went back outside and walked around a bit more and then headed back to our house for an afternoon snack/craft playdate.

Jonah and I had decorated the house for our buddies the day before. We were going to make "snack ponds" - I sort of made it up while at the grocery store... and I wanted to use those "ice molds" that I got at Ikea (remember those - see here) Here's what Jonah and his buddy got when we got home.

tupperware of blue Hawaiian Punch pond water (we did see the pond)
bowl of orange juice fish ice cubes (we saw some fish)
bowl of cranberry juice water lily flower ice cubes (which we did not get to see at the pond)
bowl of "flies" - raisins frozen in ice cubes (we saw those)
bowl of green lily pad ice cubes - I melted the premade green jello cups with hot water, added more water poured in swirly star mold - (we saw plenty of lily pads)

The boys got to stock their own pond with what they wanted. I had looked all over Pinterest for an edible frog and the one I was going to do was a green apple and peanut butter one, but I couldn't do that ahead of time because the apple would get brown. While I was in the grocery store I saw a bunch of kiwis and I knew that would work! So they each got their own kiwi frog! (I also found a whole package of these really cute candy eyes in the store - I love my local Safeway!)

The ponds were a hit until, Jonah, decided to spill his out on the floor... we should have done it outside... With that, we took the boys outside and Rebecca took over with a craft. She brought all this stuff to make these adorable frog masks, including tongues that actually caught flies! Very very cool. See her blog post here for the details. They came out great and both boys were totally into making them. Buddy J was totally into wearing his... Jonah would not. He would only "blow" his frog tongue. Masks & tongues adorned, the boys became frogs (and Jonah is still hopping around like one screaming ribbit every so often) - hopping and ribbiting all over the back yard. We drew some lily pads for them and they spent a while hopping from pad to pad.

I don't know about the boys, but Rebecca and I were exhausted from our super dooper frog-a-thon pond-apolooza playdate...

We definitely need to go back to the Aquatic Gardens when it is not flooded.

But in the end, the day was filled with lots of laughs and ribbits and jumps... I give it two "tongues" up!