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!