Wednesday Tadpole/ Froglet

Beaver checking out the scenery.

The girl looking in - Beaver looking out. Note - the water is not as green as it appears in the photo - the water is regularly changed.

Here he is today...the girl decided it's time to give him a name..."He looks like a beaver so his name will be Beaver". Hmmm not too many frogs out there named Beaver...

This afternoon we came home to find Beaver sticking to the glass of the aquarium. When we transfer him to a smaller home of his own - right away he hopped out of the water up onto the glass side.

Beaver's tail is much smaller today and he looks smaller than the tadpoles...we think at this stage he is actually considered a froglet...and the girl thinks he is a Spring Peeper (which is a type of tree frog).

Time to find him some "real" food.

Tadpole Tuesday 22nd

This morning we observed the tadpoles and they didn't look much different - the back legs were perhaps a bit "meatier" but that was it.

After supper tonight I went to check on them and a couple of them now have their front arm(s)!! The kids and I are excited. I believe at this point they stop eating and will absorb their tail for food. As far as we can see (they move quickly and hide amongst the rocks and shells) one tadpole has both front legs and one tadpole has one front leg.

We added a thick stick to the tank and one of the tadpoles crawled onto it - fun.

Tadpoles Today

I'm just amazed how much these fellas change overnight - hence the need for more photos :)

Tadpoles - 3 Weeks After Hatching

Click on the photos to see the tadpoles better.

These are photos of the tadpoles at 3 weeks old...I love how their little back legs are bowed just like a miniature version of a fully grown frog.

They are fed diced up boiled lettuce and goldfish flakes.

Siamese Cherries

Awhile back I purchased a bag of delicious cherries from a roadside market in town.

When the girl and I started devouring them we noticed something strange. Almost every single cherry was a "siamese twin". The "twins" had separate pits. The girl ran to get the camera and took some photos.

Tadpole Update

The tadpoles are doing great!

They move super fast now when you approach the tank - diving out of sight. I took a couple of photos but they were blurry. When the girl cleans out the tank today we'll try to get some better pictures.

Last night we noticed that the back legs have started to appear. Fun!

Botanical Garden "Dinoquest"

We've visited the Missouri Botanical Garden (MBG) before - but Saturday was our first visit this year.

As we walked to the entrance of the MBG we saw a large sign advertising "DINOQUEST A Tropical Trek Through Time". The MBG Climatron "becomes a time machine transporting visitors back to the age of the dinosaurs as dozens of these realistic prehistoric creatures take up residence in this lush, tropical environment."

Sounded cool - ended up being tacky!

The Missouri Botanical Garden - "Founded in 1859, the Missouri Botanical Garden is the nation's oldest botanical garden in continuous operation and a National Historic Landmark.

The Garden is a center for botanical research and science education, as well as an oasis in the city of St. Louis. The Garden offers 79 acres of beautiful horticultural display, including a 14-acre Japanese strolling garden, Henry Shaw's original 1850 estate home, and one of the world's largest collections of rare and endangered orchids."

The MBG is such a beautiful, wonderful, interesting place to visit - adding the dinosaurs throughout the Climatron and outside of the Climatron, looked tacky - something you'd expect to see at a theme park...adding the dino "roaring" sounds occasionally did not help matters at all.

It's as if the marketing folks thought how can we get parents to take their kids to the Botanical Garden? Why don't we add dinosaurs!!

The Climatron itself is worth visiting but I sure wouldn't pay extra to see the dinos lurking about.

I have nothing against dinosaurs and I actually enjoy seeing the large, moving, dinosaurs at the Science Center :)

The kids loved seeing and feeding the koi fish - they are super cool to see up close...though their mouths wide open look kind of creepy :)

Tadpoles - 1 Week Old

The tadpoles are one week old today and large enough for a photo.

I'm not sure whether these fellas have been officially named yet or not. There is actually a total of 7 tadpoles.

I've enjoyed seeing how much larger they have grown everyday :)

Rendezvous - Fort de Chartres

For a number of years we have talked about attending the Rendezvous at Fort de Chartres in Illinois.

Unfortunately we'd usually think about the Rendezvous at the wrong time of the year and the planets were never aligned properly for us to attend during the correct time of year - until today :)

"Fort de Chartres State Historic Site hosts the largest rendezvous in the Midwest with over a thousand participants, hundreds of encampments, and thousands of visitors joining in on the festivities. Based on the traditional French fur trapper’s rendezvous where trappers and traders would meet at a predetermined location to trade furs for necessities, the rendezvous was the highlight of the fur trapper’s year...."

The boy didn't seem all that excited about the whole deal - which is somewhat surprising knowing his bent towards all things military-ish. I thought it was interesting but a one-time visit is enough for me...I did enjoy listening to the bagpipes.

The girl bought a bag of mixed beads and the boy bought a large wooden sword :)

"Ice-cold lemonade" called the man pulling the wagon with the crock of lemonade. The girl and I were "dying of thirst" so I bought some. It was NOT ice-cold and it was rather watery. But it was liquid :)

The prices on the food and goods being sold seemed reasonable.

I think some of the "savages" (unlike the two at the top of the page) were a bit too uncivilized in their attire (or the lack thereof)...I guess they were trying to be historically accurate...or maybe just trying to stay cool.

Revolving Critter Collection

Well it seems like there is a revolving door in regards to the girl's critter collection.

We still have the two hermit crabs and the small toad - but Myrtle the Turtle was returned to the park and the two large toads were let go in our backyard.

THEN a couple of weeks ago the girl found a white moth and kept it in her room in an empty cool whip container with holes poked in it. A day or so later she excitedly showed me some "eggs" in there. They were not much bigger than a grain of sand.

Then a week ago Sunday, we arrived home from church and the girl came running to find me, all excited - the eggs hatched and there were caterpillars! The caterpillars were not much bigger than an ant...thing is the holes in the container were large enough for them to crawl out of and so her room and my house could be swarming with hundreds of micro mini caterpillars! If we have a moth infestation in the days ahead you'll know why! Though I figure they won't have anything to eat and hopefully die before doing any damage.

Recently the girl let the caterpillars go except for a small amount which she put back in a smaller container with some grass etc. It's been fun to watch the little critters grow - they've probably tripled in size.

THEN the day we left Arkansas - Sunday - less than 1/2 hr before we got in the car - we took one last look around the swimming pool for some of the girl's dive sticks. We didn't find the sticks. But the girl (in her mind I'm sure) found something much better - she held out her palm - there was a slimy mass with little black dots. Tadpole eggs!!

She put them in an empty water bottle and brought them home. The very next day they hatched! Much excitement.

The girl transferred them into her aquarium - previously housing the toads - and by today (Wed) they are already looking more tadpole-ish.

Who says education can't be fun?