Sunday, April 12, 2009

Spring is here!

We've been enjoying spring so far. The weather has, for the most part, been nice so we've spent lots of time outdoors. Last week we went kayaking at Cheatam Lake and Scott got some bird pictures for his new website. As we were heading back to the landing, the wind whipped up and made it really difficult to paddle. Quite the workout.

The tornadoes of this week were about five miles south of us and we have no damage. There were storms on and off throughout the day. We did get hail twice in one day which was kind of crazy. Friday's tornado(es) was/were the second (set) in April, so there's lots of debris in and around M'boro. We haven't seen (first-hand) the devastation from Friday, but I'll see it tomorrow as I go to school.
Saturday (the 4th) was Mark's birthday party, so we headed down for the day. The boys had such a good time and the weather cooperated and allowed lots of playtime in the backyard playground.
Balloons!
John helping Mark open presents.
Who me?
More presents....I think M likes the paper better than the present.
Reading a new book.
Isn't this baby Brian?
Boys and cake. It looks like M was directing the singing, but I think he actually was a bit surprised and kind of froze.
A boy who likes cake (sorry the picture's fuzzy).
Trying cake.
Mark loves when Nana sits next to him and gives him extra pieces of cake.
And here's my favorite...M said "Mmmm" after every bite he took. I agree.
Here's a picture Scott got of our backyard neighbors. There are two babies who are quite cute and fuzzy. Unfortunately, we won't be having bluebirds hatch next week as something raided the nest while we were hiking this afternoon.
We hope you all had a lovely Easter.

Friday, April 3, 2009

Bluebird eggs!

So our pair of bluebirds returned this year to the box that fledged 2 broods (9 babies) last year.  They built the nest and completed it about March 6-7, but laid no eggs.  The female disappeared, we think, and we'd given up on them this spring.  The other day a female arrived (same one?) and on March 31 she laid her first egg!!  As of Apr 2, we have 3 eggs with more coming daily (well one or two more).  

Hopefully they'll pull off a couple broods and Goldie won't catch any of the young.  I might fence off that part of the yard so she can't get back there.  Gotta give the birdies a chance!

Robins are building in the maple in the front yard too.  About time!

Why am I doing this at 3:28am?  Uh.