Hi Mother of Crickets! All your Scranimals boxes were safe and sound and
well hidden. Bananaconda is a little close to the trail, but, that's never
a problem for us. We can't even attempt to be surreptitious! We're just too
loud and active for hiding! On the other hand, people tend to give us a
rather wide berth anyway...

We liked the location of Bananaconda once we found the right siamese trees.
The kids had a great time looking out at the water and the ducks. They
didn't even fall in! I note this because Miss Ma fell no less than five
times on the trail! She was keeping her little hands in her pockets too
because she was chilly so she would trip over a root and plop completely
over - splat! No hands to break the fall or anything. It was quite awful!
She, however, is amazingly stoic (she'll run right into a wall, bounce off
and keep going). So, after brushing her off, she'd continue on her way. I,
on the other hand, was a bundle of nerves waiting for her to take another
tumble (never had to wait long, unfortunately). It got to the point where I
insisted on holding on to her elbow at all times. Of course, then, I would
let go and pause to read the compass or the clues and -splat- over she would
go again! I think we have pretty much given up our hopes of her getting an
athletic scholarship to Duke!...

We found the Avocadodo after a decent search. I saw Mary's note on the
Mangorilla saying that she hadn't found the Avocadodo. I'm amazed that I
don't give up more often. Thank goodness for the sighting of a glimmer of
blue Rubbermaid! It was a tricky spot though. I'm glad the trains weren't
running. Miss Ma kept yelling that a train was coming. And, even though
I'm a grown up and I read the sign for the train hours and saw that the
tunnel before the trestle was gated and padlocked - on both sides - darned
if I didn't scurry out from under that trestle every time. What a sense of
humor for a five year old (gets it from her dad's side...)

There was a lot of construction by the Mangorilla. They had marked and
chopped down all sorts of trees around the area. I'm surprised I found that
one too. I would play with the kids on the playground and then mosey into
the woods and look around all the trees (can't help myself). Then I would
run back to the playground in time to see Miss Ma go -splat- off the slide.
It really was not her day! Fortunately for me and my search, Be and Ma were
playing so loudly I had no worry that they had wandered off or been
kidnapped by someone (a recurring nightmare of a neurotic mom). Finally,
having canvassed the areas close to the slide, I coaxed both kids into the
woods (boy, that doesn't sound good) and looked a little closer to the
construction. There were lots of piles of sticks but we kept looking until
we finally found the right pile (with such dogged determination you would
think I was hunting for chocolate!). Mangorilla is pretty close to the
workers. I'd be a little worried that they might come back and load up all
their debris and take that pile with them.

Just my thoughts. Uh oh -- it is eerily quiet down in the playroom. Be and
Ma and Za are not making a sound. Better go check it out. That's never a
good sign! (Da is resting upstairs with a well placed ice pack....)

Hope this info helped! BeMa







>From: Gbecket@aol.com
>To: bema57@hotmail.com
>Subject: Scranimals
>Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2003 15:34:57 EDT
>
>Dear Bema: You're posting was great and fun to read! I've meant to go
>pull
>the boxes and re-hide them as I was told the construction threatened the
>Mangorilla and that the Avocadodo was missing. How did you find them? Was
>the Avocadodo missing? Does it look like the Mangorilla's spot might get
>destroyed? Is the Bananconda's spot still a good spot or too close to the
>trail? Mother of Crickets


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