knee deep

We're still here.
Shamefully, yesterday was Eric (the Daddy)'s birthday... and we didn't do any song and dance here for him like I had intended!!
Though I sang Happy Birthday!!! to him so many times yesterday in so many different ways that I don't know if he really wanted another one.

We spend the day cleaning out our little pond. Uh - when I say little, I mean little. Think Fountain, not fish, tadpoles, and frogs.
It was filled with putrid water, rotten pears (from our tree last fall), leaves, mosquito larvae-- last year we pulled one out and watched it swimming under the microscope.... make sure you do that if you get the chance... very cool!, bloated worms (I said that for effect, bloated is such a horrendous word), and even a dead bird.
Yup.
All that.

I know.
It was bad.
And it stunk to high heaven, too, once we stirred it up and started clearing it out.
So we cleaned it out!

In honor of our friends that we didn't want to expose to such a ghastly mess when they come over to play today to help us celebrate dh's Fortieth Birthday!
Finally, Mama isn't the only one that's Forty.

So! We've been scrubbin' and plannin' and schleppin muck and gettin' ready to celebrate with a few friends.

Woohoo!
Hope to get lots of fun "Happy Birthday to You" shots today to make up for putting The Stink on him yesterday.

Happy Birthday, Rico. Love you.

Oh! - and thanks for helping me clean out the pond.