(Although with the monsoon style rains we've been getting lately here in Florida, it's not much of a sunshine state.)
Hi, my name is Anna and although I've just joined this forum, I've been visiting on and off for a while, along with some other Smurfy sites. I figured it's about time I joined in the fun.
A little about me and the Smurfs in my life:
I've been Smurfing since 1981, when my mom bought me my first one. (Baker, and I still have him all battered and beaten.) He was a bribe to keep me from crying everytime she tried to drop me off at school. Every thursday thereafter, if I was good and received good marks, I got to pick out a Smurf from the local stationary store about a block away from my elementary school.
I had a nice collection going, until I got old enough to walk to school by myself and no longer needed to be bribed to go to school.
Fastforward a billion years later (1998), and my first computer introduced me to the interweb. I discovered that Smurfs were still being made, and I could pick up some of the old ones I had as a child. I bought a bunch and showed them to my mom... who acting as mothers often do, went to her closet and pulled out a bag full of my childhood Smurfs. Yes, she had kept them. After that, I continued collecting and slowly began building my village.
My mom told me at one point, that she always wanted to buy me one of the mushroom houses for my Smurfs when I was little, but due to the cost she couldn't at the time. So the first thing I did was buy the biggest house I could find, and as many of the little ones as I could hold. That made her smile like nothing before. Every little bit, a wishing well, a snail cart, even a Smurf taking a bath... was just plain fun.
My mom past away before she got to see the village finish, and for a while after that, I couldn't bare picking up another piece for my collection, where it sat boxed for a couple of years. Then one day at a comic convention (FX) I saw a Smurf dealer for the first time (I go to comic conventions regularly, and never before have I seen Smurfs, much less a whole booth dedicated to them. Actually there were a few booths that day, but that is a story for another day.) My boyfriend at the time (husband, now) told me maybe it was a sign. So I bought a Smurf in a cage.
I haven't stopped buying since.
-Anna
What a bittersweet story! 
I'm so glad you shared it with us!
Which convention was it?
Maureen 
I hope you enjoy yourself here, i am sure you will 
I bet as your mum will take care for you from above, she smiles everytime she is looking at your cuties.
)
