We've finally settled into our new beach house in Anigua, Guam. It's a beautiful location, large yard for the children to play in full of mango trees, banana trees and coconut trees - and our own private beach. The house is small, yet cozy and reminds me of the beach houses near Lang bay in Powell River, B.C.

Along with a beach house comes all kinds of wildlife. There are the hermit crabs who sport the shells of the snails you can also see in the yard. Roosters, chickens and their chicks roam freely throughout the yard belonging to no one in particular. Our 10+ cats are thriving in the freedom to climb trees, roam the beach and chase the chickens.

Two ducks live next door and frequent our yard to share the rotten mangos with their little ducklings...which is the reason for this blog! Ducklings are so much cuter than baby chicks. They are yellow and fluffy and waddle around on their little webbed feet pecking at mangos and peeping at their momma. Eric, my 6yo, is enthralled with the ducklings. To his surprise he was able to catch one yesterday evening. He was so excited that I was afraid he was going to squeeze the poor thing. He really wanted to keep it for a pet in his bedroom. He put it in an old lego bucket that it wasn't able to hop out of. Kevin, our eldest, was over purusing through our books looking for something to read and pulled out the "story of Ping" and said "here's a duck book for him". Eric was just trying to figure out a name for his duck when I showed him the book and he excited agreed that "Ping" was a perfect name for his duck.

Once he figured out he could catch a duckling, it wasn't soon before we had two ducklings in the bucket. As the sun began to set I quietly informed Eric that the babies needed to go back to their momma for the night. I really expected an outcry at this but he was willing to let them go.

This morning I found out why he was so willing...Before anyone was up I heard the creaking of our wooden floors and quiet steps of a little boy sneaking out the back door. I heard giggling out in the yard...guess what the little rascal was up to? More duck hunting! Yup, now that he had this new found skill (catching ducks) he decided the thrill was more in the hunting and catching than in the keeping!