Tine and Tee, Valentine and Teddy’s twins, had their fourth burffday yesterday. Since Tee’s a boy, and Tine’s a girl, we thought we had the perfect idea on what to do to celebrate – let them decide together, what kind of party they wanted. Smart, huh?

Well, they came up with a good compromise, but it was a lot of work, too! We needed the help of all our teddy buddies and Small City Animals, as well as our family. We needed to make a large platform up in a tree, a’cuz Tee wanted to climb trees for his burffday, but we then had to decorate it and set it up for a pretty pink party for girls, a’cuz Tine wanted a tea party. (Try and say, “Pretty Pink Party” fast three times. Doable, but your lips will go numb! Kehehehehehe) It gets more complicated!

Tee wanted to play Soldiers with his Action Figure in charge, and Tine also wanted to play house with her Doll Baby. Good thing that they’ve grown up together so closely, so we could talk Tee into having a tea party with all the Action Figures and Doll Babies and Baby Dolls, and Tee would put her Doll Baby down for a nap, before joining in on playing Soldiers.

Besides all the frilly pink lace, pink chairs, enough room for all girls and gals to gather around the tea party table, and, of course, all of our tea sets (yes, we’ve played tea party with our girls before, so we have a couple of tea sets), we also had to set up plenty of staging areas for a good war, and lots of marbles to bomb the enemy.

By the time we were ready for the party, we had a large, multi-level platform in a good climbing tree that was hard to see, because of all the camouflage we hung around it for the soldiers to hide. BUT, when we did climb in, it looked like a girl’s playhouse all ready for the Queen to visit. It was all “pink and princessy,” as our girl’s new heroine, Dilly the croco-dragon, would call it.

Matter of fact, after we decorated it for war, and as our wives were decorating it for the tea party, we slipped into the Helioplaneship Boxcar with Axlerod to fly over and pick up Dilly as our daughter’s special surprise guest, and Bob, Phytheas, and several other British and North American stuffy and doggy buddies.

Now, Bob and Dilly were busy preparing for a holiday (we call them vacations, but like the word “holiday” better, ‘cuz sounds like you get to choose your own private holiday as a week off time), which is why we brought Axlerod. He has his Special Magical Time Thingy.© (One out of seven stuffed animals can slow down or stop time in certain spots for as long as they want. Axlerod is the only one in our family, who can do this. We didn’t want to freak out anyone’s Peoples by taking their much-needed stuffies and doggies away without telling them, so we go get them in our lightning fast vehicle, and Ax sprinkles some Magical Time thingy. © They can come visit us for the day, and get back at the exact same time we stopped off, so no one even notices they were gone. We suspect Bob T. Bear has Magical Time Thingy, © too, but he’s a spy, so he couldn’t tell us, or he’d have to kill us.)

We returned just in time to pick up the burffday twins and their cousins (Spaulding and Lady’s kids.) They had just woken up from their naps, and would have panicked, if our Mommy and Daddy weren’t there to remind them that they should not ask questions or worry about where everyone has gone on burffdays!

The girls were so exciteddy to meet Dilly that they could hardly talk at first. Good thing they are girls, cuz silence is simply not common for girls, so they were REALLY talking by the time we got to the party (and it’s less then a minute away by boxcar.) Now the boys wanted to be cool around their British buddies, so they acteded like they met Phytheas and Bob T. every day.

Eevvvverybody got exciteddy when they saw where the party would be, and all the guys “accidentally” fell several times while climbing up the tree, so they’d have to start all over. (Our wives pretended it didn’t bother them when they saw their little boys falling.) Now the girls like climbing trees, too, but knew a tea party was up on that platform, and they wanted to show off their climbing skills in front of the boys, so they climbed up quickly and then “ooooooooo” and “aawwwwwww” about how perty everything was. They were so happy to see how princessy everything looked, particularly when they’re favorite stuffy, Dilly, was exciteddy as they were. It was the first time they ever heard her “Mweah” in front of them, and they ended up Mweahing all day.

Usually boys don’t like tea parties, but usually tea parties don’t have real cake and real tea. (OK, we found out that we like coffee more than tea, but there was also NeHis soda pop for everyone to drink in their tea cups, too, so everyone could drink whatever they wanted in their teacups.) Now the cake was made especially for Tine and Tee’s burffday, so our wives baked a wonderful long cake in the shape of a pink feathery boa that wraps around the neck. But, since it was also for Tee, a boy, this boa was also in the shape of a boa constrictor snake, too, so under some of the feathery looking frosting was a pair of eyes and a split tongue like a snake! (Dilly called it “a princessy wagon nayke!” Dilly is two, so she says “wagon” instead of dragon.” Our daughters did too, after that.)

And, because so many of our guest eat stuff we never could, half of it was made of stale pizza crust for the pigeons and birds, acorns and nuts for the squirrels and mice, tender marsh plants for the geese and ducks, and, ummmm, well, the beary end of the tail had some maggots and mealy worms (YUCK) for Dilly and her friend Meanie Dragon (who isn’t really mean at all.) Since there were so many doggies, and Axlerod, our dog-in-charge, likes Dinty Moore Stew in a can, the half of the cake that wasn’t normal cake mix, was also swimming in a sea of Dinty Moore Beef Stew – out of the can! (Why can’t everyone discover that hotdogs are the bestest food in the whole wide world?!) And, for the variety of stuffies, we had some honey for dipping, and chocolate covered peanuts, just in case someone didn’t like any of the cake.

After the formal tea party, (when many of the boys kept “accidentally” knocking plastic soldiers off railings, including us) all the dishes were put away. (The cake was gone, so didn’t neededed to be put away, but the dogs were quite helpful in licking all the plates clean, before putting them away.)

Some of the older or smaller Small City Animals and Stuffies, lead by Molly and Silverback, our Hotel keeping mice, volunteered happily to watch all the Doll Babies and Baby Dolls take their naps under another tree. Marbles may simply bop most of us, if they miss their targets, but they can be quite painful, if you’re a beary small animal or a baby. Dilly had to promise them many times that her baby doll, Snayke, wouldn’t eat them. Mice get nervous around snakes – were even nervous around Dilly, until they found out she preferred bugs and worms, bot mice.

Then the plastic soldiers were all set up (many brought their own and their own marbles too, so there were lots and lots of soldiers to bomb!) After everything was set up, everybody took turns flicking their bombs (marbles) at the soldiers, (a difficult task with no thumbs), until they were all picked off. Since some were on railings, some were in foxholes, and many were well hidden, it took a while.

It also wasn’t safe to be under the tree with that many marbles flying – at least that’s what Ax told us, as he and his thinking buddies gathered down there to kun-furr ‘bout their latestest s’pearments. We don’t know what took longer – bombing soldiers or finding escaped marbles, but we sure had lots of fun!

We did bring out more food to eat afterwards – hotdogs, of course, but also honey, more Dinty Moore Stew, and a variety of the food leftover from last winter’s storage in our Hotel NOLA for lost or homeless stuffies and/or Small City Animals. After everyone relaxed, enjoying their happy tummies (and the kids kept climbing around the climbing tree), we tookeded our special guests home, so they’re Peoples wouldn’t worry ‘bout them. (They never knew they were gone.)

Tee and Tine said it was their bestestest burffday ever! We’re happy, but a’scared, too! How are we going to make their next burffday even better?! Kehehehehehehe