An Unusual Morning

This morning, as Nate was leaving, he must have run into this toad and somehow caught it and put it in a bucket. He brought it back inside for the kids to enjoy. The kids were pretty excited over this new wildlife pet. I let them look at it for a while and took a few pictures before we released it into the backyard. I googled for pictures and our toad's markings resemble the Gulf Coast Toad the most. Here's a picture of our new little friend. There's no way I'd have one of these babies as a pet. It was pretty big, maybe 4 inches.

Maybe Ian had wanted to stay home to find the toad back in our backyard. I'm not sure what had come over him, but he was complaining he was too tired and not feeling well. Finally he told me that school was too boring and he'd rather stay at home. I put him in the van anyway, and it took me a while to convince him that staying home would be a lot more boring. I had to drag him out of the van, carry both him and Annika to the school and then he finally got in line to get on the bus. I saw his sad face through the window and tried to cheer him up, but he started crying instead. It broke my heart. He was probably just tired. Yesterday we had spent a few hours at the zoo with his friend Gabriel and his mom & baby brother. They were just running ahead the whole time and then he got up super early this morning. I guess school was OK today, I didn't get any phone calls.