Christmas tree pod

The night we decorated our tree, Lillee found a little gift under the tree as she was placing baby Jesus on a limb. I found her discovery the next morning when I was vacuuming pine needles from the carpet. It was this odd little pod. It had a texture similar to a wasp nest, but was shiny in places, not dull like a wasp nest. I thought it may be sap that had leaked from the tree because one end almost looked as if it has been oozing out of something. It was attached to a branch, not the trunk of the tree and felt very light, and I assumed hollow as I shook it and heard nothing.

We decided to cut into it to see what we might find. I expected a worm, an insect, an egg of some sort. Instead, there were layers of the outer material and no room for a worm, insect or egg....so I thought. I squeezed it a bit and yellow fluid began to seep from the layers. Then I saw black specks coming through the yellow fluid.

After further examination with a flashlight, we found the layers were actually divided into cells....fascinating!

We searched for an hour on the internet, using very descriptive terms but came up empty handed. Within 5 minutes of posting on one of my homeschooling boards, someone told me it sounded like a mantid egg sac. Sure enough, it was a mantid egg sac!

I love discovery, research and answers! Science is such fun and I hope my kids will continue to enjoy and have a love of exploration and the desire to find answers without fear.

Sailing on the Sultana

This is the Sultana, an almost exact replica of a British schooner that patrolled the North American coast just prior to the American Revolution. We sailed on her today. The weather was perfect for sailing! It was hot on the pavement, but once we were on the water there was a cool breeze. We were never hot, nor cold....it was truly perfect!

This is Captain Tonya giving the kids a life jacket demonstration. Connor is the little guy in the middle with the big hat.

Eager kids, looking forward to helping out.


This is Captain Tonya preparing the main sail to be hoisted.

This is a working ship so they put the able-bodied workers to work.

The kids brought up the main sail.

This is the top sail, the kids set all the sails on the schooner.

This is below deck. The crew (4 women and 2 men) actually live on the boat, in these quarters except in winter. They work with one another all day then spend their nights together. I spoke with one of them about living and working together and she said that they don't know anyone when they go in to a port so they even hang out together when they're on land and off duty. In this picture you can see some of the games and medical equipment used during the time of the boat's operation.

Connor was a willing participant. He was a crew member of the Sultana, working for the British King as a tax collector. He got a cut on board, the medic would wrap his hand and hope for no infection. Unfortunately, infection set in and now Connor's hand must be amputated. Here we see the tourniquet used to reduce blood flow and the saw for getting through the bone. you can see Connor's excitement :)

The kids were able to steer the boat using the tiller, under Captain Tonya's supervision, of course!

They learned some navigational skills, including reading charts.

This is a lead for measuring depth of water.

Yep, you just toss it over the side and let it sink. Pull it in and measure between the weighted end and the dry part of the rope. See that little swivel gun beside Connor? They fired one of those, too. No pictures though because the sound was so loud we had to cover our ears.

What a fun day we had on the water in Annapolis. Sultana sails from several ports in the area and you learn about the ecosystem of each area. I can see us taking several Sultana trips in the coming years.

March in brief

So much is going on and I've been overwhelmed (probably my most overused phrase) which is why I haven't posted in almost a month. So here is an idea of some of things we've done:

* I started a beekeeper class in February with Ron, my father-in-law

* Connor has been flying through his school work, eagerly completing his daily workload and then some. I think we'll wrap up our semester by mid-April (with the except of our ASL (American Sign Language) classes that will continue through the first week of May).

* The weather has been awesome the past two weeks so we've spent a lot of time outside, cleaning up from the snow, cleaning up from a puppy visitor we had, taking down our broken trampoline, the list goes on and on.

* Planning our garden---deciding what to plant and where to plant it then ordering our seeds and plants.

* A visit to my parents, which included our first trip to Brushy Mountain, a beekeeping supplier.

* At our beekeeping class we learned to assemble a hive by hands-on construction. After constructing a hive, they raffled it off and we won!!! I knew then, the bees were calling to me.

* After winning the hive, I became obsessed with getting bees. I visited Brushy Mountain, I made a bee jacket and a veil myself(!!!) and found a home for the hive (Jane, my mother-in-law is highly opposed to having bees so our yard is out of the question). My dear friend, Amy, also a beekeeper, started her hive last year and invited us to place out hive at her home. We went to help Amy work her hive yesterday and it was so awesome! I was filled with excitement all day and felt so at-home with the bees flying all around me.

* I started exercising again, my honey made a place for me to do TaeBo in the shed (I've not been able to exercise since last September when I developed asthma). I've found that I feel so much better after exercising, but I spend the remainder of the day wheezing.

* Chase has had another asthma flare up. Saturday morning we were at the park having a grand time, then naptime came. I put him down for his nap, left for a baby shower and when I came back he was on the nebulizer and Al felt we needed to go to the ER. It hit so quick, it was kind of scary. Thank God for our dear friend, Dr John who verbally walked me through Chase's care so we did not have to go to the hospital, again.

I have lots on the horizon, especially with my bees arriving in a couple of weeks, planting and tending the garden and wrapping up our semester. Hopefully I can snag a few minutes to write down a few highlights, but if you don't hear from us, we're enjoying the sun and digging in the soil :)

Service with a smile

I'm trying to teach the kids about service. Especially serving one another in our own home to try to cut back on some of the arguing. I feel like I spend the entire day stopping arguments, yelling for them to stop bickering and just getting frustrated and arguing myself. Everyone being sick for so long hasn't helped...I have less patience and understanding when I'm not feeling well and tired all the time. So anyway, we decided that December would be a month of service.

We have a warm fuzzy jar that the kids try to fill each day. This is to get them thinking of ways to help and be kind to others. They did great job the first couple of weeks. Then my sister-in-law and her family moved in for 2 weeks and her 1 year old loved to eat the warm fuzzies so we put them away, then we were out of town for Thanksgiving and we've just had a hard time getting back on track. So basically, each kid has a certain color of warm fuzzy and when you they do something nice (share a toy, say 'yes' instead of 'no' to a sibling's request, let the dog out, play with the baby, put away laundry) then they can put a warm fuzzy in the jar. At the end of the day if the jar is full then they get to do something they all can agree on (so far, they've requested to go to 7-11 to get candy nearly every night). We tally the daily warm fuzzies and whoever has the most at the end of the week gets a special prize (one week it was a really cool Lego flat bed truck and trailer).

Another thing we're doing is a service for someone outside of our house each day. Today was our planning day. We made a list of people we want to do things for and some special little decorations to add to a plate of cookies or a loaf of bread. We had to have this preparation day because I can usually only handle one project a day. So if we make a loaf of bread then there is no cutesie decoration going with it, just plain bread. We cut Christmas shapes out of felt and added jewels and furry stuff to dress them up a bit.

Today we're going to make sugar cookies for a person on our list.

Life in Portrait

We took a field trip to The National Portrait Gallery on Tuesday for a homeschool event. The day started out rushed, of course. I had to get everyone up, fed, dressed, then go to the grocery before I could pack lunch before we could get on the metro at 9:30am. When I returned from the grocery the kids were playing outside, enjoying the fall leaves and cool weather.

Around 9:30 when we were scheduled to leave, Lillee informed me her tummy hurt. I thought it was about snack time and she was just hungry or needed to go potty. So I sent her to the restroom, grabbed our snacks and lunch and headed out the door for the metro. Her tummy did not get to feeling better. Once we were on the metro she was moaning, rolling around and looking quite pale.

We had to hop off the train and wait for the next train to come along just to give her tummy a little break. She was such a trooper. We arrived at the portrait gallery, had our picnic lunch and waited for the doors to open. Lillee was still feeling bad. She did enjoy seeing some other kids waiting to get in and being Lillee, decided to go over and make friends with some older girls. When the girls' mother wanted to take a picture of them Lillee wouldn't move out of the shot. She just sat there with a long face and tried to blend into the group. 5 years from now they'll look at their picture and wonder, "Who was that young girl?"

We saw some fascinating portraits, sculptures, daguerreotypes and even the Preamble of the US Constitution in license plate short hand. We were able to make corn husk dolls thanks to the homeschooling event the gallery was hosting and self-guide ourselves through parts that were interesting to 3, 4 and 6 year old children. Since we're studying the Presidents of the US this semester, this was a great place to see the presidents of the past and even read a bit of their history.

We also found it fascinating that in the exhibit Faces of the Frontier: Photographic Portraits from the American West, 1845-1924 there was a wall labeled Discord and on this wall was a daguerreotype of Brigham Young. And in the center aisle of hallway there was a large poster of Ann Eliza Young, Brigham Young's 19th wife, and her role in speaking out against polygamy and Mormonism. It is always interesting seeing an outsiders view of being Mormon.

By the time we finished our corn husk dolls, Lillee was certain she had had it. I carried her out of the gallery, back to the metro where she eventually fell asleep on the ride home. As soon as we came out of the tunnels I was on the phone to the pediatrician trying to secure an appointment. They had only one left for the day and we took it!

She fell asleep in the car on the way to the Pediatrician and I carried her again and held her all through the appointment. If you don't know my Lillee that well then these statements mean nothing. At the age of 4, she is fiercely independent - at 18 months she stopped napping, completely...I think she was afraid she would miss out on something if she slept.

The Dr checked her ear, which she had been complaining about, and sure enough there was an infection. He performed a flu test which fortunately came back negative. They gave her a popsicle when she felt nauseated and that seemed to perk her up a bit, which was the liveliest she had been all day. We left with a prescription for an antibiotic and headed off to McDonald's to get her some chicken nuggets and a Sprite, the only food she had requested all day. She never ate a bite of her nuggets before she fell asleep in the car, again.

We did survive the evening, was able to get her fever down and some medicine in her. She headed off to bed feeling much better and woke again in the morning as if nothing had happened.

This might be the first fall I've not enjoyed, well there was last fall when I was on bed rest...that stunk, too. It is my favorite time of year...and I've missed it, again. Winter better be really good to make up for this crumby couple of months.

so much to do, so little time to blog

Well the summer flew by! We've been back to school for 2 months and have been traveling for most of September. We visited my parents in NC to help them pack up their house as they're moving. When we returned to MD, my dear, sweet husband and mother-in-law watched the older 3 kids while the baby and I flew to Chicago to spend 5 days with the Trents (friends who use to live in MD).

I'll try to give a quick note to things of interest:

• Connor has learned to play piano using both hands, at the same time!


• I've barely cooked the entire summer...we've eaten McDonald's WAY too much (I didn't say this was a list of good things to note, just things of note)


• Lillee and Isabel have started gymnastics


• Connor and Lillee start art classes in the morning. Lillee can't stop talkign about it. Art is her true passion!
  
• I put together the coolest Lego group for Connor, called Archimedes' Workshop. We, of course, build with Legos but we also discuss history, math and science as we study who Archimedes was and what he accomplished.


• The kids had a fun class at the nature center on turtles


• Chess Group was cancelled for lack of participation (I'm secretly happy about this as our schedule this semester is NUTSO, but I'm sad because Connor was really lookinng forward to it)


• Connor has memorized his multiplication facts 0-5!! He's not 100% on recall all the time, but pretty close....now we have to review addition and subtraction, again LOL


• Chase is racing to be my earliest walker, he's letting go when standing and cruising all over the place.


• I've decided I want to learn Spanish. I took two semester in college and know a bit of vocabulary and remember some conjugation, but I cannot speak it or understand it when heard.


• I splurged on a gadget...those things I always make fun of Al for having to have. I needed to get a new cell phone so I decided to find one with a good camera in as I'm always wanting to take pictures while I'm out, but I never have enough pocket space for phone, camera, snacks, wipes, etc. So I found a nice camera that just happens to be a phone! I've had so much fun with it.


• My raspberry bushes are fruiting like crazy and I'm loving it! A friend of ours gave us figs so I made yummy raspberry and fig jam.



• We have tomatoes coming out our ears! So I've been trying to get creative with tomatoes. I made a delicious roasted tomato soup, you can find the recipe here.

• We grew a 12ft sunflower!

I'm sure there is so much more that I'm not hitting on, but my memory seems to have faded with age and the more kid I have :>)

Thanks to my awesome husband for allowing me to stay home with my kids and funds to have such a great time with them....oh and that 5 days away from home with just the baby, well that was really cool! And how you make life fun, all the time!

The picture below was taken in a hotel room....we were driving home from my parents when the baby decided he didn't want to ride any more so he screamed and screamed and screamed. It was raining and I had not slept the night before so we decided to stop for the night. We found a hotel room and tried to find enough space for everyone to sleep. That evening was so difficult. The kids had pent up energy from being in the car all day, but with it raining outside and the room being so small there was nowhere to burn off that energy. Al and I were tired and just wanted to rest but the kids were having none of it. Everyone was hungry and we had no idea where to find food. It was a grumpy night all around.

The next morning, we were trying to get ready to get back on the road so there was a bit of hustle and bustle. But once our things were out of the room, Al gathered the blankets and covers and made a fort of the entire room. They played a game under the covers and had a grand ole time before climbing back into the van to hit the road.

I love that man!

School has begun

In July, we began our second year of school and I'm learning so much! Now, if I could just get the kids doing the same :) I have some interesting challenges this year. Well, let me rephrase that....I have one challenge, Lillee. She introduces a whole bunch of challenges.



1. I am teaching 2 children instead of one.

2. Lillee learns differently than Connor.

3. Lillee's so enthusiastic and demands opportunities to learn.

4. Lillee thrives on anything artsy.



The dynamics of teaching 2 children really ramps up home schooling. And Isabel has even been asking to do school...WOW!!! I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. Fortunately, the baby has worked in a nap pattern that fits with schooling. We get up, have breakfast, do our chores and grooming, play and read books then the baby takes a nap. Then I can get the older kids started on school work. Isabel mostly just wants to play outside, which is perfect! However, Lillee needs a lot of assistance (and attention) so I have to get Connor started on an individual activity to work with Lillee. Then when I'm working with Connor I have to have patience to answer Lillee's 20 calls for help or to look at her work so she can receive praise.



I have one really big prayer for this school year, "God, grant me with patience!!!!" Well, I pray for that everyday. I'm sure he's answering my prayers and I can't imagine how bad I'd be without his daily support but could I get just a little bit more, please?



Lillee learns much differently than Connor so I am trying to figure out how to teach her when she's completely independent....well, she comes off as independent when she's swatting your hand away saying, "Mommy, I can do it." And within a few seconds you hear, "Mommy, how do you do it again?" OK, the prayer again.....GOD! Please grant me some patience.



Lillee does not miss an opportunity to learn. She loves to point out what Connor is learning and when does she get a turn. She's wanting to learn multiplication facts as Connor is doing his flashcards. I don't want to discourage her, but I need her to stop shouting out random numbers and confusing Connor. God love her....and maybe He will bestow a boat-load of patience upon me.



Lillee is VERY artsy. She loves art, she loves painting, coloring, drawing, play-doh, anything creative. I am exactly opposite. I have work at being creative and crafty. Lillee could spend all day coloring and painting and I NEVER think to do those things. Connor does not have the focus nor the talent to color, paint, etc. He still won't color anything, he scribbles a little color on the page and calls it done. Lillee colors each strand of hair, each detail has a color chosen for a special reason. Art is a passion for her! I love it, she's talented and enthusiastic about it. However, I do not know how to help her with technique and developing her talent. This time I have to ask God for wisdom of how to help her develop her specialty.



Aside from all that, we have a jam packed semester ahead of us. The girls are starting gymnastics, Connor has a chess club and I have put together a class called Archimedes' Workshop using Legos. 2-3 times a month we'll host a class at our house where I'll teach some history on Archimedes, his inventions and mathematical findings as well as some simple machines and Lego building. We also have some fun star gazer and turtle workshops at our local nature center and a couple of classes at the Maryland Science Center in Baltimore.



Connor just finished an environmental education camp at Patuxent Wildlife Research Refuge and had such a great time! His favorite game was called camouflage. Each kid would hide in tall grass and pretend to be a mouse camouflaging itself from the eagle. If they were found, they had to leave the field and became eagle poop :^D Connor's super cute camp director made a very nice digital scrapbook for the parents.



This should be a fun an exciting semester! I'm grateful to my Heavenly father for His guidance and support as we take on this adventure for a second year. I have days that I think, "Maybe the kids wouldn't be so bad off in public school." Then I remember Heavenly Father called me to do this for my children and I need to put all I can into their education even if it does take up every waking minute of my day. What a wonderful opportunity I've been given, I honestly pray that each day I will be reminded of this and enjoy this time I have with my children. And I would not begrudge any prayers you want ed to make on my behalf :)

Book Clubs 4 Kids

My sister-in-law is hosting an online book club to encourage kids to read. I wanted to encourage Connor to work on book reviews, participating in book discussions and enjoying dialogue with his cousins in Hawaii.



We began reading the book, MVP: Magellan Voyage Project by Douglas Evans. Connor has really enjoyed it! Al and I have enjoyed the story, as well. Two nights ago, after having reading time with Connor, we sent him to bed and then Al and I read MVP to one another in bed until I couldn't stay awake any longer. Al stayed up to finish the book.



My sister-in-law also has awesome weekly prize drawings. Connor has won 2 of the prizes. One was a monogrammed backpack, like the backpack the main character in MVP has. Another was a bookmark with a timer on it for keeping up with your reading time. One week she gave away a book and CD set for learning French, because the main character was impressed by a girl he met who spoke French.



This book club has been tons of fun for our family, check it out and share it with anyone you know who would like to encourage kids to read.

The empty nester

Poor Mom! The birds are out of the nest but she's still hovering around the nest and fighting us off. It could have something to do with how mad she is with us...I knocked one of the birds out of the nest.

I know!!!

I am so ashamed.

I went to take my daily peek at the birds and as I spread the limbs of the bush I heard one topple from the nest and slowly fall through the leaves until it plunked on the ground....fortunately it was a soft landing. However we could not get him back into the nest...Mama bird was angry! She was dive bombing us at every angle.

And fortunately, it was just a day before the birds left the nest anyway...I would have been heartbroken if I had done this earlier. I don't feel too terrible as the nest was so full with 4 big baby birds that it was bound to happen, right?

Oh well, I loved them while it lasted! I can totally understand the empty-nester syndrome, now. How will I ever fill my days if I'm not constantly peeking out the window to see my little birdies?

Bird Watch

6/13/2009
This was the first picture we snagged of the birds, they were only a couple of days old


6/14/2009
You can see some very small changes in just one day

6/15/2009

Their wings are still bare.

6/17/2009

In just 2 days you can see feathers coming out on the wings

6/18/2009

They look like birds! Look at the difference in the beak shape and feathers in just a few days. I'm just fascinated with these little guys. Only 5 days separates the first picture from the last....amazing!

Birdie Update

Mama Bird must have been out searching for food because she was not in her nest and I was not attacked today and as soon as I parted the branches of the bush this was what I saw



Then there was a surprise.....


Look close.....

Enlarge the picture if you must......

There are 4 little beaks in that nest....4 baby birds, not 3!

They are so sweet and I'm completely fascinated with them. Every year we have a robin make a nest in one of our bushes, but this is the first year I've been able to see the baby birds.

And here is a short video of the birds crying for food (you will hear a pedestrian on the phone in spanish in the background, but if you listen closely you can hear the babes).

Our baby birds

3 blue catbird eggs turned into 3 teeny, tiny baby birds


They're kind of cute in an ugly sort of way



This is what happens when mama bird realizes you're reaching into the bush, she comes down from the telephone lines and dive bombs your head, scaring you senseless and causing you to ruin the shot.

The birds are one day older in this shot, you can see one opening it's eye a bit.

Here is the upset mama bird flying all about trying to make it known that she's watching you.

I now understand the phrase ruffled feathers. You can see her feathers are a bit ruffled.

A day at the park

I know it has been a long time since I have blogged and I apologize to my family and friends who do actually follow this blog. We've really been up to a LOT.

My father came to stay with us for two weeks and we put him to work! We accomplished so much that I think I was exhausted and needed some time to recover. We cleaned the yard, pulled weeds, dug and cut tree stumps, cut branches, tilled for a garden, built a trellis for the raspberries then we moved inside and he fixed our leaking air conditioner, removed wall paper, prepared walls with drywall compound, sanded walls, painted walls and moved furniture and he worked with Al a few days, too. Thanks Dad!!! We loved having you to visit and I especially loved all the projects that we were able to tackle. I could not have gotten so much done without you.

Then the weather turned off VERY nice and we have been spending nearly all day every day outside so I've had little time for blogging until today when I got some great pictures that I just had to share.

After attending my nephew's baseball game last night, my children were inspired to play a little baseball. So we grabbed our baseball gear and hit the baseball field by 9:30am.


Lillee wanted to pitch and Connor was ready to hit it out of the park!


I could not believe this shot until I enlarged it…please, click the picture…enlarge it, can you see what I see? :)


Isabel was happy to just play on the playground, she lost interest in baseball fairly quick.

Connor has learned to shuttle himself across the monkey bars and here is a short video showing what a monkey he truly is.

Do you see how crisp and beautiful it is outside? This is why we’ve spent every day outdoors…it’s therapeutic! Well, that and we really needed to do a lot of yard work and I’ve spent a long time in the garden. I’ll post garden pics when I have some green growing. Right now it looks like beds of red clay…not very exciting for all the work I’ve put into it. And to think we get to count all of this as school work!

Repurposing

Late last summer I was looking for a dresser solution for the kids as they have lots of clothes but their dresser took up so much floor space they barely had room to play. So I was tooling around on craigslist one Friday night looking for a solution when I came across a yard sale advertisement offering 2 dressers and a toddler bed for $60! Al and I headed out early Saturday to get the dressers. They were really cute...white with soft, pastel knobs in multiple colors.

Little did I know that they were not only cheap in price, but also in construction. They quickly started falling apart under the abuse of a 3 & 4 year old. Drawers started breaking, rails were bending...it was sad. So we got rid of the first dresser, a tall 5-drawer dresser, but I snagged the knobs off of it because they were cute and I was certain I could use them on another dresser.

Then dresser #2 started falling apart. I was really upset to get rid of this one, I held onto it for nearly a month thinking we could fix it somehow. I knew we wouldn't fix it, though. So I decided to pull the face of each drawer off and use them to fix another storage problem!

The kids have so many light jackets, hoodies and bags, I figured we could make a place for them to hang things on the wall. We added 4 knobs to each drawer piece and I painted on them. Connor's isn't finished yet and we're waiting on my husband to bring a drill home to attach them to the walls. I'll add more pictures when they're on the wall, but here is what they look like

And as a bonus, I was able to tie in a lesson on recycling!!

We also pulled off some other pieces of the dresser and will be using those to glue on clothes pins and attach to their bedroom walls for hanging art work. Our refrigeratore is not big enough to hold all the coloring and painting sheets of 3 little ones :) This way it's in their room for them to enjoy and manage, instead of me deciding which ones are worth keeping on the fridge! I'll get pictures of those up soon, too. We've painted our clothes pins, we just need to get them attached to the board and on the wall.

Home Ec Week

So I've been mentioning how we're taking the week off of school to have home ec week. I think it's important for all my kids to understand what goes into running a house, keeping it clean, organizing, etc. So this is the week for it!

I started yesterday with the bathroom and was so happy to have a sparkling clean bathroom from floor to ceiling. I scrubbed the tub and the walls and the floor and the sink and toilet...I worked up a sweat :)

This morning, Lillee came running into the living room loudly exclaiming, "Mommy, we have a new insert indistinguishable word here in the bathroom." I asked her to calm down and repeat herself. She said, "Mommy, we have a new sink in the bathroom."

I responded with, "It's not new honey, it is the same sink we've had."

Lillee replies, "No, Mommy! It is new, it is not the same one."

If your child doesn't recognize the sink once it's been cleaned, it was definitely time to clean the thing LOL I think the most shocking part was the toothbrushes, toothpaste and soap were no longer on the sink so you could actually see the knobs and such. It wasn't really that filthy!

Maple Festival

We attended a Maple Festival today and it was very informative and tasty!

We were able to see maple trees that have been tapped with buckets hanging from them to collect the sap.

We were able to taste the sap right from the tree...it's basically water with a very slight hint of sweetness. A sugar maple tree produces sap with water content of 97% and 3% sugar. The sap from a silver maple, the type of maple tree you see lining the streets, are 0.5% sugar and 99.5% water. There is also a red maple that is 2.5% sugar but they're rarely tapped for making syrup as you would need much more sap to compensate for the 0.5% less sugar of a sugar maple tree.

We then watched as the tree sap was being boiled down to remove the water...this takes several days.



Here you can see the sap getting thicker. Ever wonder why pure maple syrup is so expensive to purchase? It takes 35 gallons of tree sap to make 1 gallon of maple syrup.

They were kind enough to make pancakes for sampling the maple syrup. This was the kids' favorite part, of course. The girls kept returning to the syrup table to get little cup of syrup, they weren't using the pancakes for tasting they were drinking straight from the cup. The volunteers serving the syrup finally caught on after 3 or 4 rounds and fortunately started denying them.

Great Backyard Bird Count

This year the kids participated in the Great Backyard Bird Count. The first step was to provide a place for the birds to come to. Considering it's cold outside and we can't plant inviting flowers we made bird feeders from pinecones, peanut butter and birdseeds.

Slather on some peanut butter, directly to the pine cone.

Roll in bird seed

And viola, a birdfeeder.

I was surprised how quickly the kids tired of this activity so we headed outside with 5 rolled pinecones to hang from the tree. I strung them up while Connor ran around the yard snapping pictures.

Here is a great shot that Connor snagged of Lillee...he's not too bad behind the lens.

Since it was so cold and windy we waited inside and watched out the window.

We waited for the birds to come....

And we waited....

And we waited....

For 2 full days, not a single bird. But we fed a couple of lucky squirrels and those rascals ripped our pinecones right off the tree. So now we have 5 strings blowing in the wind and still not a single bird to be seen. We had nothing to report to the Great Backyard Bird Count, but we tried.