my baby is growing up

My baby is 6 now (as of a couple weeks ago) and for his birthday he decided to wear his "party clothes" in this case, a dapper tuxedo with tails, the only thing missing is a cumberbund (sp?).

The outfit was quite a hit with the young ladies at his party!

All in all the party was fun! Renting the school gym is the only way to go! Kids ran amock for 2 hours and clean up was easy, with industrial sized broom and garbage cans.

The only downer was that more kids showed up than were invited (siblings stayed for the fun)and so we ran out of icecream cake before running out of people (the grown ups had to go without) waaah. Home made icecream cake is great, ah well, at least there were lots of fruits and veggies to snack on.

Return of the Jedi

He's BAAAACK!

Aparently Yoda did NOT stay in Venice after all... the wise, little green mascot of my travels was with me all along in my checked baggage. Yes, I was checking the liner for stray garbage and there he was with his knowing grin and pointy ears. Happy day.

It completely offset the discovery of a broken hand mirror in the same aforementioned liner.

hippo birdies deer Tai!

AND MANY MOOOOOOOORE!!!!!!

PS: (I tried putting this on OUR blog but it wouldn't take, so let's try it on this one.....)

Garden Alive

My garden is LOVING this Spring... rain/sun/rain/sun/rain/sun-repeat.

And I have met some friends while doing my weeding, hard working critters trying to make a living in the vast wilderness that is my flower bed. Aside from the wriggly worms, bountiful snails with their stripy shells, and the slimy slugs slogging on around on the underside of leaves, there are bountiful quantities of spit bugs, pill bugs, earwigs and a tremendous variety of spiders (including my favourite -- this darling bee-sized jumping spider).

I am accompanied by garter snakes and beetles, speedy dragonflies and lovely butterflies, grasshoppers and crickets, floppy leather jackets, annoying yellowjackets and bugs I've never seen before.

A bunch of kinds of wasps (black yellow, red), different bees collecting pollen (yellow and huge to small and dark and a few varieties in between) and the fascinating and amazing snowberry clearwing moth that doesn't look like a moth at all.

My fiends that let themselves be seen and observed in peace... I can only imaging who might have run for cover at my looming shadow as well! I hope you enjoyed my bug's eye view portraits of my little garden.

Is the Novelty Wearing Off?

It seems that my favourite bloggers have been too busy or too happy to make regular posts these days. My source of daily comfort and friendship is seemlingly dwindling.... sniff.....

Oh ya, I haven't been posting either, bad me!

I did find this rather endearing photo on the web today while google-imaging "green+sofa+couch" .... it's a long story so I might as well just dive in.

First some very tragic news. The last of my grandparents passed away last week... he was the one I knew the best and by far spent the most time with.

Ammon Harry Butterfield, 95, quietly passed away on June 11, 2007 at the Nanaimo Regional Hospital with his sons by his side. Predeceased by his loving wife Inger and son Ken, Ammon is survived by sons Jim (Rosalyn), Frank (Kathy) and Russ (Jan). He leaves behind his grandchildren Michael, Stacey, Tara, Valerie, Kenneth, Wanda, Tracy and Sharon, and great-grandchildren Stephen, Cameron, Kai, Kole, Kali, Caden and Shaylee. Ammon proudly served his country overseas for six years during WWII. His personal values-particularly honesty, hard work, sense of humour and the importance of family-were well "planted" with those he loved. Known as the "Tomato King" for his unbelievable garden, he was also the world's best apple pie maker and not a bad fisherman. A fighter to his very last breath, Ammon never lost his sense of humour or his dignity. He lived a long and productive life and touched many lives. A truly remarkable man, he will be sadly missed, but never forgotten, by all who knew him! A celebration of his life will be held later this summer. In lieu of flowers and in honour of his commitment to family, donations may be given to his granddaughter Stacey's "Hearts Across Canada" fundraiser for the Heart & Stroke Foundation at www.HeartsAcrossCanada.com or 160 Lower Bench Road, Penticton, B.C. V2A 1A8.

It's not entirely inappropriate that I put Kermit in the same post..... you see I was helping Russ go through some of Gramp's things and found the "Muppet Caper" glass that me and the other Grandkids used to fight over at Christmas Dinners, as children, it is still in excellent shape and I feel so lucky to get it because it will always remind me of perfectly wonderful turkey dinners and the best berry pie ever (with a big "B" poked into the middle to let the steam out). He was a great cook, and I am so happy my kids got to play with him too.

Steve got Gramp's short wave radio and weather station, Cammy got his talking catfish plaque, and we have the option of taking his rarely used green floral sofa.... its in superb condition, but it is very very "1990", so we are still thinking about it. (Spider, Tai, do either of you want the "comfy" leather couch downstairs? You'll have to get it to your place on your own.)

A blogging famine, and emotional storm and kermit, the pleasant green amphibian of my youth... not bad for one post.

MORE PHOTOS

Oh THANK YOU my darling travel companions for sharing your pics, I will burn copies of mine for you too.

NOW I have tonnes of photos, I haven't even seen them all yet, and I was up LATE last night looking at them too.

And I get to show my family some more of the sights I saw, and different angles of the stuff they have already seen. I have to say though.... everyone seems bored of the peacock photos now. There were a whole LOT of peacock pictures in the mix.