Great BB! I love the pink butterflies! And adorable in your flamingo garden. All in all you get an A+ in MY book! As for faded flamingos, you can always spray paint them with Krylon Fusion paint for plastic. I haven't noticed that it fades, so maybe you wouldn't need to repaint them yearly and turn them into "blobs" like excessfroufrou and her grandma did! (I'm LOLing imagining big pink blobs on top of spindly flamingo legs...LOL!) I've got a flamingo story to share...We lived in a "fancy" neighborhood one time and a new family who owned the local biker bar moved in. They put up an entire flock of pink flamingos and some neighbors were so horrified they started a petition to force them to remove them. Now, these people could have bought and sold ALL of the rest of us 10 times over, but the snooty neighbors were simply "above" bikers in their minds. When we refused to sign their silly petition, they got mad at us, too. Apparently they shared the petition with the owners of the flock who laughed it off. None of us realized how upset the anti-flamingo crowd was until one night somebody stold all the flamingos and CHOPPED THEM up into little pieces and threw them in the street in front of the house they came from. It could have gotten ugly, but the bikers were nice people who weren't looking for a fight. Nobody ever found out who actually "killed" the flamingos! At Christmas that year, Hallmark came out with the cutest flamingo ornament. I bought one for each of the neighbors...including the very nice neighbors who owned the biker bar! And, we have had flamingos of one type or another in our yard ever since!

Here is Bubbe's recipe. I use the mix....got enough on my plate as is. *** Recipe from Renée Adler AscherÂs kitchen *** Matzoh Balls (Judy LaneÂs Grandmother TillieÂs recipe) R.A.Âs Comments: These are heavenly, light as a feather. I refer to them as "floaters" VS sinkers. Families have preferences. This is ours by way of a dear, dear friend. Ingredients: (For 8 - 10, makes 20 medium size) 1 1/2 cups Matzoh meal + 1 Tbs. 8 Tbs. Chicken fat (1/2 cup) (soup fat is wonderful, may use 1/2 oil to cut back on cholestrol) 8 Tbs. Chicken stock (1/2 cup) 6 eggs separated at room temp. 2 tsp. salt Scant 1/2 tsp. pepper (1 1/2 times the recipe, enough for 12 to14) 2 1/4 .cup s Matzoh meal plus 1 1/2 Tbs. 12 Tbs. Chicken fat (3/4 cup) 12 Tbs. Chicken stock (3/4 cup) 9 large eggs separated at room temp. 3 tsp. salt 1/2 + tsp. pepper Equipment: 2 large mixing bowls, Electric hand or stand mixer, 1 or 2 large pots, a small ice cream scooper with a scraper works wonders for shaping the matzoh balls Instructions:  Beat egg yokes with whisk, add stock, salt, pepper, and chicken fat (melted, but cool). (I use a Kitchenaid electric mixer, but a hand mixer will work for the single recipe  Add the matzoh meal 1/4-cup at a time and blend thoroughly. Note: mixture will be somewhat dry and difficult to mix. An electric mixer helps.  Beat egg whites almost stiff but still glossy and not dry. Fold 1/4 of the whites into matzoh mixture to soften the mass. This will be difficult to do because of the stiffness of the matzoh mixture unless using an electric stand mixer. Then gently fold in the rest of the whites two to three stages  Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour, two is better.  Meanwhile, put one or two large pot of water up to boil.  Using an ice cream scoop or with oiled hands, roll 1 Tbs. of mixture into sphere shape. These will expand quite a bit, so donÂt make them too big. Note: The mixture will be soft, but if it is very loose. .  Drop into boiling water as you go. If using one pot, cook in batches making sure not to over crowd pot or the matzoh balls will not expand properly and will be hard inside. I put 20 at a time in both my 13 and 16 Qt. stockpots.  When water returns to a boil, cover boil for 25 minutes then reduce heat slightly [medium high] and keep at a boil for 40 minutes.  Remove with slotted spoon to a large bowl of ice water. Cool.  Store in water until ready to use. Refrigerate for longer storage (up to 3 days).  Drain well on kitchen towels or a few thicknesses of paper toweling; add to chicken soup to heat thoroughly. Notes on freezing: Matzoh balls can be made ahead of time and frozen in water. Just remove from freezer in enough time to defrost. In a pinch, you may microwave carefully to aid in defrosting. Drain well before adding to soup to reheat.

Happygram, that's the best Hagadah I've every seen! I'll never forget my uncle leaning over gently to my cousin one year who was chanting on in Hebrew for hours, saying "Son, isn't there a shortened version some where? Don't get me wrong, you're doing a wonderful job, but could we maybe abbreviate this a little?" I was also thinking that the difference between Passover matzoh and "non-Passover" matzoh, is probably about 2 bucks.

That sounds like a fun and delicious day. Years and years ago my mom and aunts would can together, and I'd be assigned a task or two, but I've never really done any group canning or freezing. I'm an anomaly I guess. My DH helps me quite a bit when I'm canning or freezing. He's a master at dismantling the tomato press and cleaning and re-assembling! I once taught a group of young colleagues to can, we made Dilly Beans, but I suspect none of them ever tried it alone. Enjoy the fruits of your labors!