This post is a double post. I'm including the past Memorial Day weekend AND the baby bird. First the birds.

I took a picture of the babies on Tuesday morning and I plan on going out again tomorrow morning to check on them too. Here is what they looked like two days ago!

They are really starting to look like their momma!

Now for the past weekend. I hope yours was as relaxing as ours was at "The Land". If you enjoy campfires, napping in a hammock, marshmallow wars, walks in the woods, finding crawdads, riding quads, playing horseshoes and cornhole and singing "Tom Sawyer" by Rush at 3am then you missed a great time (I'll explain in a minute)!

This year's weather couldn't have been more perfect!! Friday night was a bit damp but the rest of the weekend made up for it. We had about 15 people join our family and Mamaw and Papaw for the weekend. The younger kids had a great time playing together and so did the bigger kids. The popular activity was to play Rock Band, courtesy of Shane Beverly who brought his X-Box, big screen tv, speakers, and a tent enclosure for it all. We provided the generator to make it all function but the guys had a blast playing till the wee hours of the morning. At 3am on Sunday morning I was awoken by someone, who had a bit too much to drink, singing "Tom Sawyer" by Rush and by Shane himself whooting and hollering. It's a good thing that there aren't many people living around there! Another new addition this year were marshmallow guns! Mamaw and Papaw had purchased these cheaply and they are made of painted PVC pipe. You load in a mini marshmallow and use it like a blowgun! Jason and I had a great time sneeking up on Emily (and being video taped by Mamaw) and pelting her with the tiny sweet treats!

Anyway, here are some pictures from the weekend (yes, Emily and I were there even though we are not pictured).

Ella being Ella, need I say more?!

David found a rock, "Isn't it cute?"

Jason with his personal quad fixing assistant.

A Trio of Quad Riders, does that make any sense?

Baby Bird Update

Our baby birds are growing quickly. I'm including a few photos here from this past week. We'll be away this weekend (at "The Land") and so I won't be able to take new photos till next Monday at the earliest. I hope your Memorial Day weekend is enjoyable, we're supposed to have excellent weather here, I hope the same is true where you are. Now onto the babies!

The babies on Tuesday morning

The babies on Thursday morning

BABIES!!

Well, we have baby birds! We discovered them yesturday. As you can see they still have their eyes shut and barely have any downy feathers. Momma was off getting food, I guess, when I was able to snap this photo. There are four or five of them, I couldn't tell exactly. When I whistled at them they opened their beaks but didn't make any noise. We'll try and keep tabs on them because I'm sure they'll grow up very quickly, as all babies do.

Also we had a rare sighting of peacocks this weekend! We were at Emily's soccer game, in which she did an excellent job, showing off some great skills, and Ella and David decided to become peacocks. Here they are. Hope your week is enjoyable!!!

PEACOCKS!!

Enjoying springtime!

We are enjoying the fact that it's springtime and that the weather is getting warmer. I'm particularly enjoying watching my garden grow, adding flowers and pondering my next spot to plant something else. While Jason was out tending to our yard the other day he made a discovery.......

There used to be a cow pasture out back of our house, once upon a time, and all that is really left of that fact is the old gate post that is left in our backyard. We tore out the remainder of the fence after we moved in but decided to leave the gate post because it was big, old and added a reminder of what the land used to be. As Jason was weedeating around the yard he decided to investigate the gate post, which has a hole in the top of it. He was very surprised to find a momma bird! Needless to say she was not too happy at his discovery of her and she proceded to squawk/hiss and hit the inside of the post with her beak.

Jason shared his discovery with me later that evening and I in turn shared that discovery with Ella and David the next morning. When I took Ella and David to see, momma bird flew off as we were approaching and we were able to see her five speckled eggs in her tiny nest. We shared this with Emily that afternoon, she was afraid to peek in for fear of momma bird flying out at her!

I think she is some type of chickadee, probably a Black capped or Carolina, they both look VERY similar. My bird book says that the eggs incubate for 11-12 days so hopefully we won't have to wait long for babies! We will track their progress and keep you up to date on them.

I also had to show off a rose that I got for Mother's Day. On Monday I was walking by it as it sat on the kitchen table and the morning light was hitting it just beautifully that I had to take a few pictures. My favorite one is below!

THIRTEEN, AT LAST!!!

This is what Emily has been saying! Jason and I aren't too thrilled with the fact that our little girl is now a teenager but time moves on and we knew it would be here sooner than we wanted.

This past Friday Emily had over six of her good friends for a slumber party. They put on a fashion show for one of the other mothers and I and then had fun watching movies, eating snacks and talking till the wee hours of the morning. On the Saturday evening we had a family dinner, for those who could make it. Emily got her scrapbook of letters that I (with the help of MANY) had been working on for more than two months. She didn't say much but the fact that she had a hard time putting it down I took as a compliment. I'll include photos of the events for all to enjoy.

Emily with her friends

Fashion girls!

Emily with her scrapbook

Unfortunately, Jason had to miss all of these fun event because he was taking a six part national balancing certification test in Phoenix, AZ. He came home exhausted, it took him 14 hours of airplane rides and trying to stay awake in airports before he got into Dayton on Sunday morning.

I had to include this picture of a double headed dandelion that Emily found this past week. Isn't it cool?!

The second of two posts!!!

I have two posts today, trying to make up for lost time, so don't forget to scroll down and check out the previous post!



On Thursday April 17th, Emily was inducted into the National Junior Honor Society (the Junior High version of the National Honor Society). Unlike the inductions at Deer Park, the kids knew if they got in (after filling out an application and having maintained a 3.5 GPA for two trimesters). There were 75 that were inducted in her class!! The vice principal appologized that he didn't know many of the kids but they were the ones that he never had to deal with and for that he was not sorry! After having their names read each one went up and received their certificate, card, and a flower and then signed a book to include their names with the others of the past who were a part of the NJHS. The guest speaker was Sheree Paolello, a News 5 anchor. She tried to inspire the kids by telling them of hometown heroes that shared some of the same characteristics that the NJHS upholds. She did a great job and supposedly we made it on the news that night, I don't know because I didn't stay up that late! We're very proud of Emily and expect that this will be one of the first of many accomplishment for her.






I can't leave out David in these new posts. I'll start by sharing that as I was sitting at the computer recently, David and Ella were eating breakfast and having a conversation. I am usually not paying much attention but did hear Ella say in an exasperated voice, "David, you can't marry me, you'll have to find another beautiful woman." I immediately got on my email and sent that off to our family. I hope you find it amusing too!

Also, David was playing with Ella recently and decided he was so tired that he would go ahead and make himself a bed amongst all the toys. We are phasing out his nap and well, he took it upon himself to give himself one, the result is below, Enjoy!! Till next time!

Soccer Season has begun

I know it's been just about a month since our last post and someone told me they were getting the "blog blues" since nothing had been updated lately. Sooooo... if you'll note there are two new posts today!

Emily and Ella started practicing, after many delays (snow and flooding included) and had their first games the beginning of this month. I can't remember what number of season this is for Emily, six I think, and it's Ella's first season of soccer. Currently their standings are as follows, Ella's team has won all 4 of their games whereas Emily's team lost their first two and won their last game (3 games total).





Having said that this is Ella's first season of soccer if you combine that with her personality what
you result with is an interesting game, if you're watching Ella. I'm not sure it's been explained to her what all the positions do and how they do it. She does understand that there is no touching the ball, with the few exceptions, and that the point of the game is to get the ball in the opponents goal (but that's about it). I don't have many doubts that this will be her first and last season of soccer, at least for a while. We did not force Ella to play, we just asked when we saw the sign ups and she said she'd like to play, soooo here we are!





Emily really seems to enjoy her team this year and does a wonderful job on the field. The coach has recognized that she has stamina in running (thanks to cross country combined with it being in her genetic make up) and has her playing midfield most of the time. Her skills continue to improve along with her confidence on the field. Maybe I should get Emily to privately tutor Ella? Anyway, here are some photos of her on the field too. Enjoy!