But today was the BIg Party. Eight kids were invited, five arrived (all of the ones which where we gave the invite to the parent, rather than to the kid to take home; there’s a lesson there somewhere.) There were four boys and one girl, while the accompanying parents who hung around were four women and one guy.  The children chased each other inside a bouncy house with a giant inflatable hammer marked “Princess”. They wielded a baseball bat against a poor, helpless papier mache, beating the beast until its guts spewed Almond Joys and Heath Bars. They turned each other into zombies, decorated their own cupcakes, consumed cartoonishly oversized pizza, and played frisbee golf with flying disks with their names written in Sharpie and the date and location of our wedding printed on the disk. They each left with a kite, a balloon, a dozen bouncy balls, a blank comic, and a non-blank comic. Happiness seem to have been had by all.

And we were left in good situation, as this event got us finally taking care of some things in the back yard – the furrows of the old garden have been tilled away, the pieces of the used jungle gym we bought and gave up on figuring out now stowed in the narrow gated side yard, the weeds beaten down to a managable level. The backyard has never been this clear in all the time we’ve lived here.

And the girl is proudly seven.

Allison took second place in her age group at the local Halloween festival for her (admittedly store-bought) Daphne-from-Scooby-Doo costume. The prize includes various free McDonalds treats, a pass to Six Flags Magic Mountain amusement park, free bowling certificates, and such. Quite proud, she was.

Lilly and the Light Company's logo

For your information the Lilly and the Light Company is open for business and two cents apiece will be the fee and a dollar is the bill.

The Lilly and the Light Company gives advice to people. Hope you use us sometime!

dictated by Allison

PONY GIRLS: The American Horse Flag. By Allison. Written by Nat. (Note: by “written” she means “lettering”, and in this case just later in the issue.)

Once upon a time, there were 6 teens. Chendal, Alki, Lolly, Olson, Ashley, and… Georgia. But one day, a wizard creeped up on them……..

and turned them half horse… except for Georgia. Now it’s up to Georgia to rescue her friends. Will she?

(That first piece of dialog is from the wizard, in a cave.)

Stay tuned for issue 2, coming soon, if she decides to do it!

For this project, she will need a deep pot – she was asking if we have an old rusty one, but we do not – and a chocolate coin wrapped in gold foil. The coin is to be place in the bottom of the pot.

So what is this device?, you may wonder. It’s a leprerchaun trap. The leprechaun will see the coin, not realize it’s chocolate, go into the pot to get it, and then not be able to get back out because the pot is deep.

As for what we are to do with a pot with a leprechaun and chocolate in it, well, that’s a question which I’ve not dared to ask.

On the week end I had a super bowl party. My dad’s freinds wached the super bowl while men and my freind FOX and his Brother Grifin played in the play room. When it was almost half time me and dad put mentose in cocke.

My new friend at school is Nevaeh. Nevaeh and I often play together. I love Nevaeh. Nevah loves me. I will give her a valentine.

If I went to the rain forest I would explore. I would take picturs. Rain forests are beaing cut down help rain forests by donating to your locl animal shelter.

And my favorite of this batch:

I know a lot about fogs. Frogs leap vary far. Male frogs have a bubble. If evry one of us in the school was a frog I would perfer to stay that way.