Hello, my Name is Ribbon - and Coco!

Many of you know about Jake and his sister Carolyn's long standing "Bean Bag Frog War".  I covered the beginning of it here.  Well., it's been 5 years since I have posted about this and a lot has happened.  I'm so mad at myself for not chronicling the frog's adventures by blogging or even just taking photos.  So I'm going to try and remember what has happened since 2010.  I had to call 3 people - including Carolyn - for details and we're still fuzzy on the events.  So if you participated in any of these and notice I'm missing details, please let us know!  (when I called my mom to figure out details tonight she was so reluctant to give out information - Carolyn keeps her allies tight-lipped!)

When we last left the frog, it was with us in CT........

We moved back to Utah that year and took the frog with us.  One evening we met all of Jake's siblings at his parent's house for dinner.  Jake grabbed Carolyn's car keys from her purse when she wasn't looking then pretended to need something from our car (I think it was chapstick cause his lips hurt real bad).  He took the frog and hid it in a storage compartment underneath her trunk - like where you would put tools and jumper cables.  It was months before she came across it!

We were living in Provo and Carolyn enlisted the help of my dad to hide the frog (though he still denies knowing anything about a said "frog").  We found it one day randomly hiding in a container that I had in my car.  Great minds think alike!

Next the frog, being a resourceful fellow, made himself a shoe box "home".  We got Carolyn's garage code from her parents and hid nested the frog on her garage storage shelves.  It was several weeks before she noticed a random pink box way up on a high shelf.

Carolyn next enrolled my mom to aid her in her trickery.  (She's good at getting allies!)  My mom hid it in the bottom drawer of our glass TV stand.  But shortly after she hid it, we had movers come and tape up all the drawers, then move it to Michigan!  I don't think we ever opened it when we lived in our town home.  Then when we bought our house the TV stand wasn't in the living room.  I think it was months before I went through and opened that drawer - SURPRISE!  A frog!

On our next trip back to Utah we borrowed Carolyn's spare key to her house (from her parents) and hid the frog in her basement.  Jake took a brown cardboard box and wrote "Christmas Decorations" on it, then put the frog inside.  When she was down there looking for something she saw the box and thought "that's not my handwriting...."  

In 2012 Carolyn came to visit us for Thanksgiving and met my friend Jamie.  Well right before the twirls were born she contacted Jamie on FB and asked her to join the fun (man, Carolyn has a talent for acquiring allies...hopefully we're on her team during the zombie apocalypse).  She mailed the frog to Jamie then, when she was over at my house helping me (and my ginormous belly) Jamie hid the frog in a random box in our toy room.  I just remember Scarlett coming and getting me one day to look at what she found:

Well, I never said anything to Carolyn about finding the frog (a common strategy both sides have occasionally employed).  And Jamie never wrote Carolyn on FB saying that she planted the frog.  Carolyn didn't want to be rude and bug her about it.  As time went on Carolyn was convinced that the frog just kind of got lost along the way.  We normally give it back every 3-9 months.  But she hadn't heard anything from us about giving it back to her.  (in my defense, the year after the twirls were born I call "the gone year" cause I was in a sleep-deprived stupor).  Rather then let the tradition fade into oblivion, Carolyn took matters into her own hands and made another bean bag frog!!!  She sent the second frog with her mom (who I thought was on our side - apparently she's a double agent!) when she came to help me and the twirls.  I remember finding it in a plastic container in my basement (is that right?) and we were so confused!  Now we have 2 frogs!  Twice the fun!

We wanted to do something really fun for Carolyn since I had frog #1 for so long.  So we made a scavenger hunt that started with one frog and ended with the other one.  The clues took her to all of her family member's houses and all over her own house (Mom G hid them in Carolyn's house for us).  The best was we hid the first clue and the first frog in her purse - while it was on her desk at work!  Jake's mom randomly had Carolyn's boss's email so we recruited him to do the dirty work.  She was so surprised when she found it at her office and we made her sweat for a few weeks before we told her how we did it (hey, don't feel bad, she waited forever to tell us how she pulled the P&W prank off).

Well, Jami was at my house for Christmas this year.  I didn't suspect that her visit would have any frog mis-hops (even though she loves surprises and she's super creative), but a few days before Christmas... something fishy froggy started happening....

5 days til Christmas

5 days til Christmas we woke up and found both bean bag frogs were full of Christmas spirit!  They appeared in Scarlett's room and they were even wearing adorable little frog Christmas sweaters!!!  Scarlett was soooo excited and full of wonder at these magical Christmas frogs that decorated her room.  When I came in to see what was going on she pointed at the frogs and said "look at what Ribbon and Coco did to my room!"  I asked her who Ribbon and Coco were.  The frog with the black and white sleeve stripes is "Ribbon" cause they look like ribbons around the arm.  And the one with white pom poms is "Coco" cause they look like marshmallows you put in your hot cocoa.  Duh mom!!!

The past few nights Scarlett has requested "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" for her bedtime song, but her favorite verse is "Bring us some figgy pudding RIGHT NOW!!!"  The frogs considered decorating the twirls' room too - but they decided the risks didn't outweigh the benefits (good choice frogs!)

4 days til Christmas

4 days til Christmas we woke up to a Frog Hop race... complete with cheerleaders!  By now Scarlett was just going crazy with excitement at what the frogs were going to do next.  I can see why people love Elf on the Shelf - it's fun to see their enthusiasm (too bad I'm just to stressed in December to do that for my kids...)

3 days til Christmas

3 days til Christmas we woke up to a Frog Game Night.  I'm not sure how you award points at a puzzle game, but it seems pretty darn competitive!  I love that the frogs have chairs, even though they're on the table!  And Snowflake seems to be enjoying that root beer a little too much! ;-)

2 days til Christmas

2 days til Christmas we woke up to a Frog Slide Party.  All the littles (that's what Jami calls my kids) get so restless right before Christmas - so a slide party was a great idea!

1 day til Christmas

1 day til Christmas we woke up to a Frog Christmas Eve Plan.  The frog made a treat trail for Scarlett to follow from her room down to the living room.

Then they laid out a "Christmas Eve Plan" along with instructions so she would know what to do that day.  It was their "last night coming to life with Christmas Magic" since Santa was going to take over.  But we really enjoyed having them in our home.

All I know is the bar has been set really high!  We are going to have to come up with something crazy to follow this magic!