Fun Stuff

This section of the frog blog is all about fun stuff we may be up to.

Our first section of fun stuff is “The Adventures of Tad the Frog” We have a little stuffed frog named Tad (short for Tadpole) that we take on road trips. He gets to experience all kinds of places. He will be helping us chronicle our travels and tell you about the fun. Here is our first few entries.

Our trip to Raleigh, NC

Today, 12/21/07, we started our trip to Raleigh, NC to visit my mom, Mrs. Frogman’s brothers and sister for Christmas. While we are driving down the road I like to look out the window at all the pretty sites. Wisconsin is always pretty but Illinois is not as exciting. Today we got to travel through a new state called Ohio. It was really pretty. While I was looking out the window dad snapped my picture. The coolest part is there is no snow on the ground. When we left Wisconsin the snow was over my head….at least dad says it was. I was afraid to go out and check. Here is a picture of me by the window of the van.

Driving down the road

Today we were driving through the mountains of West Viginia on our way to North Carolina. Those mountains are cool. We got all the way up to 3254 feet. I think if I jumped real high I could have made it to 3260. Anyway, today dad let me drive the van. It was fun…I got to use the steering wheel. Here is a picture of me driving down the road in North Carolina.

We finally arrived in Raleigh, NC about 2pm and got to see mom’s brothers and their family. One of her brothers I have never met. I got to see 2 of my little cousins too. Mom and Dad got to see them for the first time as well. It is much warmer here in than it was back in Wisconsin. We drove over lots of bridges that had lakes under them. I think I heard some girl frogs down there croaking for me. I’m such a “frog magnet”. The girls just love me. Gotta go now and have fun with the family. See you later.

By the way…..I hope I get some flies for Christmas…they are tasty.

Helping out as best I can!

I was trying to help mom and my aunts around around the kitchen. I found these cool looking bottles but they wouldn’t let me have any. The said I was too young. Mom and dad never have these cool looking bottles at home. All they ever have is boring water bottles.

With the big dinner coming up in a few days I thought I would lend a hand making the deviled eggs….they look kinda yummy but would be better with some flies added. The adults don’t like flies in their food though…they just don’t understand. They will taste good anyway. Mom and my aunts are just cooking and baking like crazy. I think I am going to gain a few pounds over the next few days. I’m hungry!

The big day is almost here!

It’s Christmas Eve morning. I just can’t stand all the excitement building around here. The kids, my cousins, are just going crazy with anticipation. Of course I am too. Here’s a picture of me under the Christmas Tree. I must have been a good little froggy. Look at all these presents….they’re all MINE…just kidding….they’re not all mine but I have been a good froggy this year. There is also a picture of me in one of my favorite rooms of the house…..the house with the treat table. Yummy Yummy. They are so good! Dad told me not to eat too many of them or I will get sick. He told me he knows from experience…he was a little sluggish last night. I think he enjoyed them yesterday a little too much.

Later today we are going over to my Uncle Vance’s house to celebrate some Christmas memories with all the Aunts and Uncles and Cousins. It will be a house full of kids but what fun I will have….after all kids love me!

I’m Exhausted!

Oh Man! We just got back from Uncle Vance’s house where we ate lots of good food and desserts. We got to open some presents from our secret Santa’s (family members). The cousin’s all had a blast. You can see how exhausting it was opening those presents….look at me laying there passed out from exhaustion right in the middle of all the paper.

After opening all the presents Mom and Dad went to a Christmas Eve church service and enjoyed the real message of Christmas.

The kids are all tucked in their beds waiting for Santa to arrive. Oh the fun we are going to have tomorrow. There’s a boatload of presents under the tree and I know Santa is going to bring a bunch more!

Christmas Day has arrived!

Well Christmas day has come. All my cousins got lots of cool presents. Mallory got a baby doll named Tiffany and a little guitar to make music with. Something tells me it will make more noise than music. My other cousin Cloe got lots of cool stuff. She got lots of accessories for her American Girl doll. Can you believe she has a dress that is the exact same one as the American Girl doll. She looks like the doll came to life.

After the presents were all opened we sat back and watched some Christmas movies. We probably watched A Christmas Story more than anything else. That movie is my moms favorite movie of all time. Can you believe that kid gets his gun every time. Here is a picture of me and a new friend of mine manning the remote control to make sure no one changes the channel from our Christmas movie. The frog friend is one of my cousin Cloe’s kids and the bear in the background is one of my brothers named Barney….he likes coffee like mom.

After lunch mom decided to make up some of Great Grandma’s famous punch. Everyone in the family raves about how yummy it is. I got me a cup of it right here. It is pretty tasty. The good part about it is it is loaded with sugar. That gives me lots of energy and best of all with a little patience it will attract me some juicy flies.

Uncle Dana and Uncle David were talking about “spiking” the punch. Why would you take a perfectly good and tasty punch and put a spike in it. What good would a railroad spike do in a punch bowl. I just don’t get it. Adults are strange sometime!

We are in Miami now. We were busy driving here and unpacking which is why I haven’t been posting here for a few days. Dad tells me there are some fun adventures ahead for our time in Miami. I think there is a party on New Years Day….Party!

We had Boatloads of Fun!

Today mom and dad headed up to Ft. Lauderdale to Mom’s brother’s house. He lives on a canal with a boat dock and everything. I’m excited….can you say “hottie” girl frogs? I have heard a few calling my name but I am waiting for just the right one.

Dad and Uncle David took the big boat out fishing and let me come along. I figured there would be lots of girl frogs out there for me to say hello to…they love me! Anyway, as you can see in the pics below I got to have lots of fun. First Uncle David let me drive the boat as you can see in the first picture. A little while later I actually got to use the fishing pole. Can you see me sitting in the seat there fishing. Uncle David and Dad didn’t do too well fishing though. They pounded the shore with something called a lure that looks like a fake minnow….why would any smart fish bite on a fake minnow. Fish are supposed to be smart aren’t they….they swim in schools. Anyway after a bunch of casts I actually caught a fish. You can see him in the third picture. Well, Dad caught the fish but I HELPED. We just had BOATLOADS of fun.

Tonight is New Year’s Eve. It is going to be fun. We got lots of great food and people will be here. What fun. I hope I can stay up till midnight! Tomorrow on New Year’s day we are having big party here in Ft. Lauderdale with Dad’s family all coming up from Miami and Mom’s family that lives in the area joining us as well. There are going to be tons of people here. Fun Fun Fun.

Adventures with Cars!

Today Dad and Grandpa Hinkle (did you know he is actually a great - grandpa….really he is!) took me to a place called South Beach Classics. It is a show room of classic and custom built cars. There are over 200 cars there and all of them for sale. Dad and Grandpa weren’t shopping but just admiring all the historical and cool cars. Grandpa is quite the car buff and is really good at identifying old cars and the year they were made. He was having a good time. Dad and Grandpa said it was their day to make a memory with each other. How lucky am I that I got to come along and be part of their memory.

Anyway we had a fun time. Just look at all the pics we took and you can see how much fun I had.

Here I am inside a cool ‘39 Chevy

 

 

 

 

 

 

Check this little car out…just my size!

 

 

 

 

 

I like this car…it’s green like me!……..I just love the tiger fur upholstery…it’s so comfortable!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We met these cool guys in this 57 Buick. They were loads of fun…but thy looked kinda dangerous.

 

 

 

 

 

Here I am admiring the hood ornament on this car called a Bentley. Dad says this car would cost more than our whole house back in Wisconsin. Why would somebody buy a car that costs more than a house. People are strange sometimes.

 

 

 

Here I am with the Blue’s Brothers….just some friends I made today. They even had a Police Interceptor car that the Blue’s Brother’s drove. Why didn’t dad take a picture of that car.

 

 

 

 

 

Here are the last 2 pictures. The owner had a big stuffed grizzly bear that was shot in 1976. It was huge. He saw me and thought I would be a tasty morsel. He had me in his claws but dad saved the day and rescued me from that big grizzly. He was scary. The second picture is me sitting on the back of a cool machine gun they had in the corner of the garage. It was neato. Those silly mechanics were storing a few screwdrivers in the barrel of it. You can see them in the picture if you look real close.

Almost eaten by an Alligator

Today daddy and his brother, my Uncle Steve, went fishing with my Uncle David (mommy’s brother). He has a big huge Ranger bass boat and took us out to the Everglades. It was a cool boat ride. We got to go really fast. After about a 20 minute ride we stopped and everybody started fishing. I was stuck up underneath the deck so I didn’t get blown away by the boat ride at high speeds. It was a fun ride though.

Anyway, once we stopped and they got fishing Dad was the first to land a fish…a big one to. He said it was at least 2.5 to 3 pounds. Later on Uncle David caught an even bigger fish. You can see the fish in the pictures below. The rest of the day the “men” only caught a few smaller bass. Uncle David got about 7 or 8 fish total and Dad got 3 or 4 fish total. Poor Uncle Steve on got one little 12″ long fish but at least everybody caught something. In the second pictures you can see how big that bass’s mouth was. I could fit in there….oh wait….if I was in there I would be dinner for him. What was I thinking looking in there? I must have been feeling a little brave at that moment in time.

It was a fun day in the Everglades. We saw a bunch of big alligators. Alligators like to eat animals found in the swamps, like frogs, so when I saw the alligators I hopped back under the deck of the boat for safety. I could see their eyes and they were looking like a tasty frog would be a good meal. When I was brave enough to venture out for a peek I was on the look out for some “hottie” girl frogs. There were plenty of lily pads around. I saw some beauties….you know those South Florida frogs are known to be beautiful.

Well here are the pics…..look at the size of those fish….what was I thinking. 

Look at those fish…they are huge.

What was I thinking…that fish coulda eat me for dinner!

Basketball is fun!

Today, January 18th, I got to go see my cousin Laura play basketball at her school. Did you know she plays varsity basketball at her school but is only in 8th grade. She must be really good. I know mom went to lots of her games while we were visiting in Florida….Mom is a huge basketball fan and very proud of Laura. One time a teammate of Laura’s asked if Mom was Laura’s sister. That made Mom smile. Here are some pics of me watching the game and also Dad let me take a few pics with his big cool camera. I know, I know….Dad and Mom are videographers but Dad was taking still pics but don’t worry, Mom was making a video of the game. Anyway here are the pics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fun at the 4Evergroup Convention in Orlando!

We are finally here in our final destination. The tourist capital of the world. Mom and Dad are attending the 4Evergroups National Videographer Convention where they will learn all kinds of new cool stuff to make their movies even better. Monday night was the big Awards Banquet. I was sad for Mom and Dad…they didn’t win any awards this year but they are cool with it. Awards are hard to win. There are some pretty good videgraphers. There were even people from Poland, Canada, England and the Philippines that won awards. One guy even flew here from the Philippines. His name is Jason and he has a funny last name….at least for us American frog’s it is a funny name. He won a suitcase full of awards. I got to meet him. There is a picture of Jason and I below.

Today was a fun. There was a big tradeshow with lots of cool equipment that you could try and buy. Dad didn’t buy anything…..yet! We also went to a big lunch get together with many of his friends from an online forum for videographers. There musta been 50+ people there. As you can see from the pictures below they LOVED me! I was like a Rock Star today….me and Jason from the Philippines…we’re Rock Stars as you can see below. I was like a cult hero. What fun we had. Here are the pics of me and all my fans!

In the pics below you can see me having lunch….that patty melt was tasty. Dad also had some Black Eyed Peas on his plate. They looked like flies but they weren’t. Are Black Eyed Peas a Hip Hop group…us HIP frogs know that stuff you know. In the second pic I am hanging out with Paul Basile from Texas and Kris Malandruccolo from Illinois.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In these next 2 pictures I am hanging out with Jerome from Tennesee. He is one of Dad’s best friends. Jerome does some pretty cool movie trailers. In the second pic I am hanging out with Ron Dawson. He was pretty cool too. I hear he is pretty famous.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here I am with Julie Hill from California. She was an Iron Videographer just like Dad. I bet Dad could have beat here if he would have had to face her. Dad thinks she would win but I know he would be better….cause he’s my Dad….he can do anything. In the next picture I am hanging out with Leeann McKeon from Massachussets and Sheila Orsi. Sheila is from Boston and she is hilarious….the best part is she is a Packer fan. The other day she had a Brett Farve jersey and a cheesehead on. She’s just dweamy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ooooh Sweeeet! I got a kiss from Laura Moses and Laura Randall. They kissed me to see if I would turn into a handsome prince. Come Laura and Laura….I a handsome frog and that’s what I am! They are great friends of mom and dad. Laura Moses is really funny and makes mom’s favorite videos (aside from dad’s of course). Did you know her husband is known as The Mayor! I thought they were videographers….not politicians. In the next picture I am giving LaDonna Moore a kiss. I think she loves me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last but certainly not least is the picture you have been waiting for. The 2 Rock Stars together. Me and my “bro” Jason from the Philippines. We kinda look alike don’t we. He has a green shirt and I am green. We even have the same smile don’t we….a big smile!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s all the pictures for now. There may be more to come later. Dad is on a panel discussion tomorrow and has is hosting a roundtable session so he will be pretty busy. I may tag along to meet more cool people though. These videographers are the nicest people!