My Gilroy Gardens Adventure

The summer fun continues! A few days ago I joined some of my human friends at Gilroy Gardens Theme Park. We rode in giant spinning artichokes, relaxed as we floated down a river surrounded by colorful flowers, spun in circles (faster than my pet snail, Smudge) on a red ripe strawberry, rode up and down on a happy little carousel, and chugged through the redwoods on a steam train. It was plant-tastic (Hee-hee, couldn't help myself there). Thankfully, where there are lots of plants there are lots of - you guessed it, BUGS! For lunch I sampled an array of flies, ants, and red dragonflies (yeah, I thought it was weird that they were red too and they tasted a little spicy). Just another cool experience to add to my collection! See you on the next adventure!

My Safari Park Adventure

Would you believe me if I told you that I came face to face with lions, zebras, monkeys, giraffes, and cheetahs this week? Well, you better believe it because it's true! No, I didn't travel to Africa - I went to the Safari Park in Southern California. That's right! I, Ribbit McFly, went on a safari (never thought I'd say that!) :) It felt almost like a dream as the tram took us through a land filled with exotic animals. And I got to get really close to them - I mean, really close! I almost touched them!

Thankfully, the humans reassured me that the animals were safely locked in enclosures so I didn't have to worry about being eaten. Phew! The only downside was the super sticky summer heat. Good thing I found a pond to cool off in. It had the biggest lily pads I had ever seen and I had a blast jumping all over them! It was awesome! See you on the next adventure!

My Disneyland Adventure

Hiya friends! I just got back from an amazing adventure to Disneyland! I heard from the humans that this was the happiest place on earth and they weren't kidding! As soon as we entered the park and made our way down the bustling main street, we were met with a cheerful marching band led by a big mouse with round ears. He was the strangest looking creature I have ever seen (being so giant and all), but everyone seemed to love him, so I knew he was okay. The music the band played was so happy and upbeat that it reminded me a lot of the music in Lily Pad Hollow. I didn't recognize any of the tunes they were playing, but that didn't stop me from leaping to the beat. Next, we walked all around the park, checking out the rides whizzing by and taking in all the sights and sounds of this amazing new place. Let me just say, I have never seen tiny humans more happy. They were screaming and squealing with delight as they jumped onto the rides and shoveled handfuls of brightly colored cotton candy into their mouths. It looked so delicious, but they didn't have any fly flavored cotton candy, so I decided to take a pass. I really enjoyed a place called ToonTown with all its silly houses and cars to ride on. It almost felt like a crazy dream or something. One of my favorite rides in the whole park was called Splash Mountain. There were so many new animals to meet there! I mean, I got to see a fox, a bear, a rabbit, some opossums, and so many more. There were even a few frogs there. They did seem a little weird though. I kept trying to say hello and talk to them, but it was almost as if they were ignoring me and they kept repeating themselves. Oh well. Maybe that's just how they do things at Splash Mountain. I did get to meet some friendlier animals throughout the park. One was a giant orange dog, one was a happy tiger who kept bouncing and bouncing around, and I got to meet that big mouse with the funny red shorts. It was truly a magical experience, but it's good to be home! See you on the next adventure!

Beep! Beep! Little frog, coming through!

My State Capital Adventure

Sacramento, here we come! This adventure required a few hour bus ride, but hanging out with friends always makes the time fly by (mmm… flies).  Anyway, when the Fourth Grade humans and I got to the Capital, I couldn't believe my eyes. I mean, I thought Yellow Jacket Secondary School was big, but this place was enormous! We got to take a tour and learn about how government works, which was pretty cool. Then we ate lunch outside on the grass in 96 degree weather (yikes). I scarfed down my fly sandwich right before this yummy looking moth landed on Mrs. Hall's hand. I guess it was that moth’s lucky day because I was too full to even think about eating him. I'm pretty sure I scared Mrs. Hall though. Look at her silly face.She thought her new little friend was going to be my lunch. Ha! Not today, little moth. Not today.

When lunch was over, we took a stroll around the building and found a small pond nearby that I could cool off in. I even got to meet some new turtle friends. Their names were Donatello and Raphael. They were pretty nice, but they kept talking about being ninjas or something. I had no idea what they were saying. 

After bidding my new friends farewell, we all got back on the bus and drove to Sutter’s Fort. It was super awesome getting to see all the old pieces of history! I felt like a time traveler or something. It kinda made me wonder what life in the Hollow was like a long time ago, like when R.T. Hopkins was alive. It must've been so different. 

After a while, it was time to crowd back onto the bus destined for school.  I can’t wait to share what I learned about Sacramento with some of my friends back at the Hollow. I think Mayor Cornelius might get a kick out of how the humans run things. 

See you on the next adventure!

My Candy Land Adventure

The only thing that I love more than adventure is sweets! Some of my favorite little humans took me to the most amazing candy store this week. I mean, the place had everything! There were sour candies, sweet candies, chocolate candies, and ice cream. There were even gummy frogs (but we decided they should be called Gummy Ribbits... gonna have to talk to the owner about changing the name now that I'm a big star). Of all the candies, my favorites were the candy crickets and ants covered in chocolate. Yum yum! The humans thought that those candies were pretty gross (for whatever reason) and they stuck to the colorful candy that lined the walls of the store instead. Oh well, more crickets for me! We had a blast frolicking around the candy store, choosing our goodies, and checking out some of the old toys for sale. One of the humans played a joke and snuck up on me with a toy snake. I tell ya, I nearly had a heart attack! I didn't even have my cattail sword! I was so glad he wasn't real. After my experience with the water snake, I could do without seeing another snake for the rest of my life! Despite my little scare, this is an adventure I would definitely like to do again (soon if possible... like, maybe next week). I'm going to get back to eating my bag of candy crickets now. See you on the next adventure!

My Hospital Adventure

It all started late last night. I was happily dreaming about exploring this super cool underground fort that I found where there was all this treasure and fly treats, when all of a sudden I woke up feeling hot. I mean, I felt like my body was on fire! I cried out for my mom who quickly came in and put her hand on my forehead. I think she could feel that I was burning up so she called for my dad and they took me to see Dr. Bouncer at the hospital. Zippy came along too, but she slept through the whole thing. She didn't even know that she had been on an adventure last night. When we told her today, she cried because she said she always misses the adventures, but I think that she picked a good one to miss. This adventure was no fun at all.

     Anyway, when we got to the hospital Dr. Bouncer took my temperature. He looked at the thermometer, made a concerned face, and then said that we needed to stay for a while so he could keep an eye on me. Then he gave me this candy fly flavored medicine, which was so yucky! I had to plug my nose in order to drink it down. How could they possible claim that it is candy fly flavored? I never tasted a candy fly that gross before. Yucko! The good news is that a just a little while after I gulped down the sticky, bitter medicine I felt much better and Dr. Bouncer said that my parents could take me home. Thanks goodness! I was so ready for bed!

            Today I’m just relaxing, reading, and drawing up plans for my next adventure because my mom said I am too sick to go to school. She’s making me drink lots and lots of water (so much I feel like a water balloon about to burst) and said that hopefully I will be feeling better tomorrow. I certainly hope so because I need to get back to fighting evil-doers and saving the day. See you on the next adventure!

My Zoo Adventure

I’m back in Lily Pad Hollow this weekend, just relaxing beside the crisp, cool waters of the pond and enjoying a mosquito milkshake with my two best buddies, Phinn and Croak. This is the first weekend in a while that I haven’t had something to do and it feels nice to just hang out with my friends.

With all this time on my hands, I’ve had some time to think about some of my past adventures. One of them comes to mind as one of my favorites – my zoo adventure. That’s right! A while ago, I, Ribbit McFly, got to visit a zoo with some of my favorite little humans.

I'm told this big hairy
beast is called a bear.

On the bus ride there, Mrs. Hall told us all about the types of animals we would see and I couldn’t believe how many cool creatures lived in the zoo. I mean, R.T. Hopkins would have leapt for joy to get to see these animals up close and personal. He could have written like a hundred books just from the animals we were about to see in one day. I knew this was going to be an awesome adventure!

When we finally arrived at the zoo, I couldn’t wait to see the animals I had heard so much about. Mrs. Hall gathered us all together and told us that we could break off into small groups and explore on our own (with a parent to look after us, of course). How cool was that? I quickly picked a few of my best friends from class and we wasted no time in getting started.

Silly Monkeys

The first animals we saw were called giraffes. They had the longest, most ridiculous necks I had ever seen! It would take all the frogs in Lily Pad Hollow standing on top of each other just to touch the nose of that incredible animal. I could’ve used that giraffe to help me get my favorite acorn frizbee out of the tall tree in Old Frog Amphibulus’ yard. Maybe they would let me take one home with me? Probably not, but it doesn’t hurt to ask.

Here's the meanie owl

With spirits high, we quickly moved on to see some other animals. They had animals called tigers (yikes, their sharp teeth were scary), monkeys (they seemed like a ton of fun), penguins (I loved their fancy looking outfits), and even owls like Ollie. I carefully approached one of the owls because I wanted to ask if he knew Ollie, but he actually tried to attack me! I’m telling you – as soon as he caught sight of me, he started tugging at the rope on his foot, eyeing me as if I were lunch. I didn’t care for that at all, so my group of humans and I got out of there real quick.

When the sun hung high in the sky, it was time for us to head back. We had a little time before school ended, so I drew a picture of all the animals I saw and brought it back to Lily Pad Hollow to share with my class at Dragonfly Elementary. The other frogs asked a lot of questions and seemed interested in the zoo, all except Kilroy and Squiggy that is. They kept saying that I was making the whole thing up. I just ignored them because I knew the truth and now I even have some pictures to prove it. See you on the next adventure!

My favorite place  - the Insect Zoo!
 If only I could've figured out a way to get through the glass!
Then I could have had a delicious lunch. Yum!