We’re not entirely sure that we did a good thing in finishing making the picnic table for the Garden Gals! We tookeded our family to the grand opening of the Teddy Bear Pool today, leaving Mommy and Daddy behind. Daddy has insomnia again, but Mommy doesn’t like making any noise while he sleeps, so we thought we were safe.

The Scientists ( the group of the oldest, smartest, and deepest thinking Stuffies out of all of our buddies, including Axlerod, Santa and Sandy Paws, Mr. Bunny, Mr. Owl, Eeyore, and Prof. Sygmond Freud – part of our buddy, Mawson’s hug) have been meeting together every other week, since some of them first met at the Teddy Bear Pool a few years ago. They usually get together to philosophize (betcha didn’t know we knew such a big word, huh? Kehehehe), compare notes on s’periments they’ve done, and, when the need arises, plan how to take care of or help Stuffies or Small City Animals that we all know.

Well, little did we know that they planned on preparing the pool opening and or-ga-min-izing the Annual Opening Day Party without our help this year! Our feelings would have been hurt, ‘cept we forgot all about the pool, since we’ve been so busy helping the Garden Gals, and Axlerod did give us hints that some kind of surprise was being prepared for us, so we couldn’t snoop to figure out what it was. (Now, living with Santa, we really, really have to be good, so we really didn’t snoop!)

We weren’t invited, a’cuz all of our buddies wanted to surprise us! When we got there, we were shocked and bouncy to find out that all of our buddies from near and far were there. There were streamers, balloons, and a huge sign across the fence along the side of the Teddy Bear Pool that read, “Thank You, T.Bear Family!” We didn’t know why we were being thanked!

Eeyore walked up to us in front of that big crowd of smiling, cheering and bouncy Stuffies and Small City Animals. In his bestest oh-fish-earl voice, he announceded, “In honor of all you’ve done in the past few years to help homeless Small City Animals and Stuffies around the world by building The Hotel NOLA for those who need a place to live, by creating an animal food bank so no one will ever go hungry again, and by helping to maintain our old Teddy Bear Pool, welcome to the Teddy Bear Pool Opening that we’ve secretly prepared, so you can just relax and enjoy the day in your honor!”

Well, first of all, we couldn’t believe that Eeyore could talk so much in such a short space of time! (It usually takes him a whole day to say that many words! Kehehehe) But, when everyone cheered and clapped when he was done, well, it’s almost more then any Stuffy could bear! As the group continued to clap their paws, hands, and wings, we just looked at our family and each other, then back to our family, as our mouths stayed open, with big grins, until we saw little Tine hide a tear as she laughed and hid her face into her mommy’s tummy. Well, not sure what we were feeling other then beary happy and humbled, her happy tear made us all laugh and cry at the same time. (We don’t recommend trying that at home – it kinda hurts, but in a good way!) We started laughing and hugging everyone. Poor Eeyore was the firstest to be hugged, and he’s not beary good at knowing how to react with so many hugs at once! That made everyone laugh and cheer again, and we spent the next hour hugging everyone (s’pecially, Ax and Pez, a’cuz they did such a good job keeping the secret) and laughing and bouncing.

The picnic was already started, so the grill had hotdogs on it, even before we got there. It seemed like everyone waited for a hug from us, and then went to eat. We didn’t notice, until the mice and Pez pulled over our Radio Flyer Red Wagon full of hotdogs for us to eat, to keep up our strength as we continued to laugh and hug!

After hugging everybody, we wandered around and noticed all the food for all the varieties of animals (stuffed and warm-blooded), we got bouncy, and smiley, and teary all over again, when we realized that everyone had brought enough food for four others! (We usually ask for enough food for three others, giving one-third to the storage rooms, when animals need more to eat in that time of year, between the end of winter and before plants have produced seeds, flowers and edible parts for Small City Animals. Since it was colder last winter then the year before, our supplies had dwindled down a lot!) We were so happy that our idea caught on so well!

Well, while we spent our day enjoying our buddies, eating, and swimming, Mommy was doing stuff she shouldn’t have done! (That’s why it is so beary important that we take care of her. She isn’t beary good at taking care of herself, and is always forgetting that she is disabled, so cannot do what she used to do.) It was hot today 88°F (perfect day for swimming), but the humidity was low and there was a nice breeze – cold, only if it caught you just getting out of the swimming pool. Mommy had all the pots, soil and filler she needed, so “just needed to put everything in its place.”

She removed the old herb garden pyramid that we made a couple of years, because it was made of untreated wood and disintegrated under the dirt, and the slats were too small to plant anything. Then she swept up the mess made from all the soil draining out in the last few years. And, as if that wasn’t enough, she pulled over one of the beary huge, new containers to put back there, and then moved around tables and planters to make it an interesting display.

She’s also sowing more seeds, in hopes of a late display. (Yes, we know it’s late in the season, but if you only have so much ability, you do what you can do, whenever you can finally do it. See? She really NEEDS us!) That meant she needed to find places for those containers, too! Well, by the time we got home, she was surrounded by a variety of partially filled, filled, and empty containers, three separate piles of dirt, she had swept up from different areas of the garden, and different bags and buckets filled with different soil amendments to make sure each container drains quickly.

The garden was a mess in places and beautiful in other places, BUT Mommy was so tired and sore (if she overworks, it makes her sorer then she usually is, and she’s usually sore enough), she was almost in tears, until she saw us. We brought out big cups of cold soda, pulled down the umbrella over our table, since the late afternoon shadow covered most of the garden by now, and sat on the table next to her, drinking cold sodas together. We promised to clean up the mess, if she would water the garden. (We fear the hose, since it could squirt us, giving the perfect excuse to bathe us!) But first, we just sat together, and told about our days. Well, we told about our day – Mommy just pointed to what she had accomplished and we oooohhhed and ahhhed!! The more she saw how impressed we were, the happier she got.

After her soda, we made her go into the nice air-conditioned house, while we gathered pots and supplies, putting them out of sight, the best we could. (That toy chest we picked out of the trash last autumn has come in really pawy, even if the grill can’t be used on it, since the heat started burning the top.) The piles of dirt she gathered all went into the compost bucket, which we hid behind our farthest table. It really wasn’t as much work as she thought it would be, or more importantly, it was much easier for us to do, because we can’t hurt our backs, since we have no bones or nerves to bother.

By the time she came back out to water the plants, we were sitting up on the table, finishing off our warm NeHis. She’s a good Mommy – she brought us out a couple of nice cold NeHis, and admired all our work! Of course, we stayed outside to remind her to take breaks while watering. We still don’t have enough structures to put all the tomato plants on, and since they need lots and lots of water, she needs to take a break between the first and second time she waters them, as well as, sit in the chair near her newly created corner of pots, as she waters all of them. (She likes that she can sit while watering.)

We whipped up a small batch of hotdogs on the grill to see us through Jeopardy, and we were all happy and smiling afterwards, as Daddy admired our work in the garden – well, mostly, Mommy’s work in the garden. She’s going to have to take tomorrow off, and might have stopped any progress in the garden for a while, as she recovers.

Mommy has to go to bed now, so we got to go. Spaulding will have to make sure she is sleeping well all night. Until next time…