More Mail

"You know blog pals" says Ben, "getteeng seKretaries to make posts kan be beary tryeeng."

Jerry and Ben are finally posting a photos of some additional Holiday cards that they received.

The cool monkey card is from Hammie (very Hammie red, don't you think?). Sandy sent us a beautiful hand-made card, created by guess who, Beanie Mouse and Andrea! The blue postcard with the cool Winteroffer image is from Sullivan, and we also included the neat envelope that Bob T. Bear sent his card in (noted in a previous post) because it has his picture on it. Can you see Bob? Finally, Achille sent us a beautiful paper tree.

Isn't it beary cool! It even has little glitter ornaments on it.  Thanks everyone!

San Francisco & Mail

We recently got to tag along on a short trip to San Francisco!

Our human companions were visiting friends and doing some wine tasting. Wine tasting didn't sound very interesting to us though, we think we should have ben able to do honey tasting! Maybe next time.

We did get to view some great sites in San Francisco including...

Some really cool cable cars!

A funny garlic restaurant (hehe)...

A beary cool pig mural in Chinatown (we took this photo for our pal Sullivan McPig)...

We also got to taste some great French pastry! Look at the huge croissant au chocolat we found at an Italian/French bakery. It was so beary yummy! We actually went back there another day to have another one!

We had a great time visiting San Francisco! When we got home, Jerry ran to check the mail, and there was a package waiting! Whom can it be from?

It's from our pal Ajdin! He recently went on a road trip and sent us some souvenirs! There was a beary cool lost bear pub, a map (in French!) of Saint Croix Island (Ben loved that!), a cool postcard of Cadillac Mountain, and sum yummy treats (already gone!). Thanks Ajdin!

Finally, a few weeks ago, Beanie sent us a roll of film and said we'd love the photos. So, Papa had them developed and they were photos from one of Beanie's trip to France! Beary nice photos Beanie, we love them!

Happy Bearthday Ben! Update!

Feb. 5, Ben's Bearthday Part 3, last part.

Ben is finally catching up on his bearthday post. "Hey!" says Ben, "Not my folt for beeng late! My seKretary waz buzy. I had to keep peztereeng him to pozt theze photos!" Ok Ben, that's true, it has been rather busy around here. Anyway, Ben got some very nice cards from some of his blog pals.

There is a very cute card with a Bear on a bicycle from Little Fox, a fun postcard from Sullivan. Thanks Little Fox and Sullivan! Ben also received a card from Ajdin with some special drawings...

Do you see the awesome bears! Thank you Ajdin and Uncle Tibbs!

Finally, Ben received a special card with a map of France and a paper Eiffel Tower that pops up from our pal Sandy! Ben loves everything French, so you can imagine his surprise! Best of all, Sandy enclosed a super beary awesome surprise, a kitchen apron for Ben that Sandy got on his trip to Malaysia! Ben is so excited! It has two pockets for wooden spoons and spatulas! He can't wait to use it when he bakes! Thank you Sandy!

Feb. 1, Ben's Bearthday Part 2

We have the first update for Ben's birthday. After the fun events related in the first part of our post, our pal Jake came over to help celebrate Ben's bearthday! He brought a delicious red velvet cake with him! Our dog boo thought the cake looked good too!

The cake was BEARY yumm! It's great to celebrate your bearthday with pals! Check back next week to see the final part of the post!

Jan. 31, Ben's Bearthday Part 1

Today is Ben's bearthday! To start off the morning, and because we got a beary big amount of snow yesterday, Jerry and Ben are going to play outside. They will make snow bears and have fun sledding down one of the big piles of snow that have been created since the start of winter from shoveling. "So much shuvoleeng!" says Jerry. Then, Jerry is going to take everyone out for a yummy bearthday lunch! Ben says that he has received some nice cards, and he will post about them next week since we are currently doing a little traveling. So check back for part 2 of our post!

A Beautiful Mill & Mail Call

First, this week we took a little trip to Wisconsin to see a wonderful old mill. To get there, we drove through the beautiful countryside and farmlands of Wisconsin.

We then arrived at Dells Mill; isn't it beary beautiful!

Dells Mill was built in 1864 (for our European pals, that's really old for the Midwest!). For over one hundred years, the Mill ground wheat into flour and feed for the animals.

Second, we're catching up on the mail that's arrived recently, and we sure are lucky to have received such nice things!

We received another beary nice postcard from our pal Sandy who is traveling in Vietnam and Laos. The card shows the Ganh Son whirlpool. Sandy said that it has been beary hot over there, even with his new shorts and sandals! Thanks Sandy! We also received a neat card from our pal Sullivan who was traveling in Rome with his human companion. The card shows the Capitoline Wolf; it's a statue that symbolizes Rome and her people, as well as all of Italy. Thanks Sullivan! Finally, we received a little package with a surprise from our pal Beanie mouse!

We had told Beanie about strawberry Jello, but Beanie said they have a different kind in England; it's not a powder (like here in the States) but is in cubes that you dissolve in hot water. Thanks Beanie! Jerry is very excited to try it. We'll let you know how it turns out. Do you make Jello or Jelly at your house? With what do you serve it?

Bear Olympics - Team USA & Final Voting!

Team USA--Ben, Jerry and Jake--(photo above, left-to-right) is ready for the Bear Olympics, and we're very pleased to host the following beary important contests:

ENTRIES & FINAL RESULTS!
Judging for our contests will be a little different from some of the other bear olympics contests (just to make it easier): Jerry, Ben and Jake will each give a score of 1-to-10 to the entry, and the final score will be the average of those 3 individual scores. We'll be sending some little prizes to the winners.

The judges were beary impressed with all the contestants! You all did a great job!

Contest 1: Napping
photo of the contestant napping or hibernating


Gold Medal, Fitzwilliam Toffypenny
Silver Medal, Sullivan McPig
Bronze Medal, (tie) Sandy & Buttons BeCause


Sullivan McPig (The Netherlands)
Judges' Results:
Jerry: "Sullivan iz snoozing, zzzz." 8.5
Ben: "That blankie lookz nize!" 8.5
Jake: "Awesome dude!" 8

Sullivan is napping on the couch with a nice warm and soft blanket.

Fitzwilliam Toffypenny (The Friendly Company of Bears, "Granny K"), (Great Britain)

Judges' Results:
Jerry: "I sleep when I reed too muzh two!" 8.5
Ben: "The bouk iz a nize tuch! Beary creetive!" 9
Jake: "Awesome dude!" 9

 If you listen carefully, you can hear Fitzwilliam Toffypenny snoring!

Alexander Mackenzie Bear (Sandy), (Canada)

Judges' Results:
Jerry: "Shhhh, don't wake Sandy up!" 8
Ben: "Duz Sandy wear hiz hat two bed? Canada muzt bea culd!" 8
Jake: "Awesome dudes!" 8.5

Buttons BeCause (U.S.A.)

Judges' Results:

Jerry: "Buttons needz to burrow Sullivan's blankie!" 8

Ben: "We luv naps too! Napz are beary gud!" 8.5

Jake: "Awesome dude!" 8

Contest 2: Gardening
photo of the contestant gardening or in the garden

Gold Medal, (tie) Sandy & Buttons BeCause
Silver Medal, Teddy
Bronze Medal, (tie) Bob T. Bear & Zotti

Alexander Mackenzie Bear (Sandy--flower gardening), (Canada)

Judges' Results:
Jerry: "Thatz a beary nice garden!" 8.5
Ben: "Where iz Sandy? Oh, there he iz! I like all the difrant kinz of plantz." 9
Jake: "Awesome dude!" 9

Alexander Mackenzie Bear (Teddy--herb gardening), (Canada)

Judges' Results:
Jerry: "Yummy, mint!" 9
Ben: "Teddy iz a gud gardener, look at all the mint!" 8.5
Jake: "Awesome dude!" 8.5

 Alexander Mackenzie Bear (Zotti--vegetable gardening), (Canada)

Judges' Results:
Jerry: "Beary purty!" 8
Ben: "Zotti muzt be proud of thoz veggees!" 8.5
Jake: "Awesome dude!" 8.5

Bob. T. Bear, Esq. (Great Britain)

Judges' Results:

Jerry: "Thatz a nize shuvul, kan I burrow it?" 8.5

Ben: "Are you growing slugs Bob? (giggle and toe wiggles)" 8.5

Jake: "Awesome dude!" 8

Bob. gardening with marigolds and slugs

Buttons BeCause (U.S.A.)

Judges' Results:

Jerry: "Thatz a beary nice garden!" 9
Ben: "We luv all the photoz Buttons!" 9
Jake: "Awesome dude!" 8.5

one gardening photo among many; check the link above for more

Babies!

Jerry and Ben have been spotting lots of little baby animals all over the city this weekend. Can you see the baby animals in each photo?

While walking along the lakes, Jerry spied some baby Canadian geese with their mommy this morning. Jerry wonders if Canadian geese honk with a Canadian accent? Maybe our new pal Canadian Bear can tell us...

Ben saw a mommy duck and her little ducklings. "Thoz little duks sure are gud swimmers" said Ben.

Yesterday, we saw a mommy turkey and her five babies looking for food in the neighbor's yard! Yes, there is a small group of wild turkeys living in the city! They walk through the yards and say "gobble, gobble" to all the neighbors. Ben wanted to go play with the baby turkeys, but Papa said it was better to stay back, because the mommy would not like little bears to get to close to her children.

Finally, we saw some cute piglets at the farmer's market yesterday and had to take a photo for our pal Sullivan; we think he would like them. The pigs are made out of recycled metal, and the noses are bottlecaps! Aren't they clever? Were you able to spot all the babies in the photos?

March Mail!

We Papa got home from work today, he brought in the mail and there were two things for Jerry and Ben! "Who could have sent us mail?" asked Jerry.

Jerry read the back of the postcard; it said "Greetings from Utrecht" from our pal Sullivan McPig!

The postcard photo is beautiful; we hope someday to travel to Utrecht and see it for ourselves. Thank you Sullivan for the great card!

Ben next looked at the box, and the return address on the package said Hammie Hamster! Papa helped open the box, and Jerry and Ben noticed some beautiful blue and white Dutch stickers! "I can decorate my school folders" said Ben.

There were also some fun Dutch napkins that Jerry said we should save and use for our picnics this summer, and a really neat card from Gea and Hammie!

Underneath the card and stickers, Jerry discovered some Dutch chocolate!  

There were also some delicious looking candies, but Jerry couldn't wait any longer and tore open one of the boxes of chocolate...

 ...and took a big bite from one of the chocolate bars; the bar was shaped like a giant letter P! "Thess shoKolAH iz beary Goo!" Jerry explained with his mouth full, but Ben said he meant that the chocolate was really good!

While Jerry was tasting the chocolate, Ben opened the little round disk and carefully ran it under water, and a fun little towel with a dog on it opened up! The dog looks just like Boo! We'll save the towel and use it to have our picnics on this summer!  Thanks Hammie and Gea for the beary fun surprises!!!

A Christmas Surprise!

We received a box from Ute, her flock and Petra all the way from Germany! Jerry and Ben were so excited to open the package and see what was inside!

There was a beautiful Christmas card with holiday greetings! Thankfully Petra translated the greeting for us, because Papa's German is very rusty!

There were so many wonderful packets of chocolates, gummy bears, chocolate bears, and Christmas treats that we do not see in the U.S. Jerry and Ben couldn't wait to taste them all!

Jerry discovered two tiny paper stars: one blue and one red! Ben's favorite color is blue, and Jerry likes red...how did Ute know??

Ben opened a little package with a red votive candle holder that had an etched design on it, and a little votive candle. There was also a fun bear clip that Jerry clipped on his hat, and a tiny bottle of honey schnapps; the bottle had a bear growling on the label! Ben wanted to try it, but Papa said maybe he and Jerry should taste the treats; Papa will keep the schnapps...hehe.

Thanks Ute and Petra for the wonderful surprise package!!