Curbside treasures...

Twice a year we have a 'clean-up' or 'large item disposal' day. This is supposed to mean that we can haul out our junk to the curb and the city will pick it up free of charge.

What it really means is... treasure hunting!

Its a great system of recycling...after all 'one man's junk is another man's treasure', right? Lots of scrap metal folk trawl around picking up bits of barbecues and old aluminum lawnchairs; and then there's the secondhand-stuff dealers sorting through the furniture and picture frames to overhaul. And then there's us - who grab our wagon and go wandering the streets in search of some lovely items. I was hoping to find a bookshelf for my ever-growing collection of books but...

Here you see a really cool chair and a shelf/table thing, a neat jar/bottle that Savannah picked up and a butterfly net. Missing from the photo is a container of wooden letter-blocks that Savannah scouted out and claimed....super cool!


We went back out later and found a small outside patio table...but that was it -- most of the piles had been picked over and only the 'real' junk was left for the landfill. How cool is that?

Thar's a hole in my footpath...

So B and the kids were enjoying watching the groundskeepers blowing out the automatic sprinklers (in time for the cold weather - ugh!) when suddenly a large geyser-like explosion erupted from somewhere under our footpath. It blew a rather sizeable hole...fortunately no-one was standing nearby to get bludgeoned by the dirt and gravel that went flying.
It seems there was a small leak in one of the pipes that got completely blown apart by the force of the air that was pumped through them. Happily, they came and fixed the section of pipe without too much damage to our walkway.
And apparently, the landscaping guy commented on our lovely footpath....why thank you, we rather like it too. ;}

Rocket on the bird feeder...

Another member of our squirrel family - Rocket -enjoying some birdseed. We later discovered that she's mama to four little ones....dubbed Jasmine, White Feet, Grey and Heather.

Chillin' with Dad...

Can there ever be TOO MANY photos of our kids wearing our sunglasses?

Operation Candle Blow-out...

Here you see a rather grainy, blurry 'surveillance'-type photo snapped by a cell-phone of Sebastian and his Auntie Ashleigh blowing out a birthday candle. Due to an intense dislike of fusses and out-of-tune singing, Sebastian does not care for the more elaborate candle blowing-out ceremonies that most people endure...so only his sister and his cousins were permitted to be present..with special appearances by Nanna - keeper of the flame, and Auntie Ashleigh, whose birthday followed after his.

And so the rest of us enjoyed the moment, by proxy, and Trusted in his heart and that he should enJoy his birthday, as he sees fit.

..and besides, we have the photographic evidence that he was enJoying it very much!

Heart's *Desire*...

Once upon a time a very special friend had a stuffed frog. One day she brought that stuffed frog out to play. For some reason that we may never know, a certain very special boy became quite enamoured of that frog (and this is unusual because this boy isn't typically attracted to stuffies) and always enjoyed a long turn whenever it came out to play. It was sometimes hard, but he always gave back the frog with a smile and a wish of 'see you later'.

Then it came to be that it was that special boy's birthday. There was a little party (not too much of a party because he isn't fond of parties) and a few presents (but not too many presents because he isn't fond of fusses). Among those presents was the most wonderful one of all. That very special friend had gone deep into her heart and spent some time thinking about that frog and that boy and realized that she would be very happy to say a final goodbye to her froggy friend and so she wrapped it up carefully and brought it to the party.

And now that very special boy has a very special frog....his name is Ribbit and brings great Joy.

..thank you, dearest Madi.

Happy birthday Sebastian...

Happy birthday to our Shiny Sebastian! Hard to believe its been four years since you joined us in this world....

Giving the Dora pinata a whack with a stick....

...Having never actually had a pinata before, we learned some things. Number one is that they don't come pre-stuffed. You have to stuff them yourselves. We discovered this AFTER we hung it on the tree. (We interrupt this birthday party for a dash to the bulk food store). Also, you no longer have to beat the living daylights out of it to get the candy. They come equipped with a nifty little trap door with strings attached. Everyone takes a turn to pull a string until the *right* one opens the trap door and the candy falls out.

I have mixed feelings about this. On the up-side, we can recycle the pinata. On the down-side, I have a sneaking suspicion that these changes in the nature of pinatas were engineered by uptight do-gooders who feel its not healthy for children to whack things with sticks in order to get candy rewards. I blow a large raspberry in their general direction.

We all agreed that the original method was grand idea....so we whacked it anyway...

..THEN we pulled the strings (at the same time so we didn't have to make it a competition)...and reaped the bountiful harvest....

Love you, baby boy.

Worm tea...

Ah, the glorious bounty!!

That delightfully dark brown liquid you see is known fondly by us vermiculturists as 'worm tea'. It's the liquid 'run-off' from our wormy friends' hard work and, when mixed with water, is a marvelous liquid fertilizer for our plants.

Thank you worms!