Skip to main content

Bird Nerd

Well, the last week of June flew by in a flash. The kids both had busy weeks at their summer care, and both Scott and I were super busy at OUR summer care, aka work. Hands down, though, the kids had way more fun.

Ava had several pool days (did I mention she tested into the Green group for her swimming lessons? Way to go, kiddo!) She also went to a few different fun locations (arcade in Lakeville and dance party at another school) and is making some new friends from other elementary schools in the area. Since this will be her last year in the Summer Power program, I want her to enjoy it as much as possible. Next year, we'll bump her up to the middle school group, and before we know it, she'll be able to stay at home by herself for entire days. Personally, I have fond memories of staying at home during the summer, while my parents were at work. I read a lot and fell in love with retro TV shows like, "I Love Lucy," "Bewitched," and "I Dream of Jeannie"...there are only a few years before she'll have to start working, so I want her to enjoy the time while she has it.

G also went to the local splash pad, and then had a visit from a science guy at daycare. He brought home a bean growing experiment that will teach him all about how plants grow. Should be fun! He had a bit of a rough week with hitting his friends, but, at least we've got the potty training under control. He hasn't had a poopy pair of underwear in 3 weeks now! So, now that we've mastered that, we need to work on learning to manage the feelings a bit better. We'll get there...it just takes time!

I missed my little house finches chattering at me, so I decided to try to lure them into our yard with a new bird feeder. It's been a success...we've had several finches hanging out, chowing down on the food over the last week. Plus, I bought a hummingbird feeder and have seen a few of those buzzing around, too. I've developed a sudden love of birds, which makes me feel about 100 years old, but there's just something so fascinating about them. Love it!

We've also been spending a lot of time with our neighbors recently...and the local wildlife that has moved in. There was a turtle trying to lay eggs by their driveway, a momma duck and her babies zooming across our road (not kidding, I have never seen baby ducks move so fast), a dead baby bird on our driveway (boo...we think something pulled it out of the nest, because this thing was a brand new baby...there's no way it could have made it there on its own,) and a beautiful bird that was hanging out in our neighbor's bushes. We don't know if it was hurt, because it stayed still the entire time we looked at it, and never left. It was still there the next day, and the last time I checked, it was gone, but wow. We've had an influx in creatures invading our home area...very cool!

I sent my dad a picture of the bird so he could identify it for me..within minutes, I had my answer...a cedar waxwing! Isn't in pretty?


The same neighbors are gone on a vacation for a bit, and G is counting down the days until his little buddies are back to play with him. Every day he runs to the windows to see if they are back home. It makes me heart so happy to have great people in our neighborhood that we can hang out with!

We also had the chance to spend some time with Grandma Deb and Grandpa Whitey last Sunday before they headed south to go home. It was nice to catch up with them and their old neighbors, and to see Scott's brother. It was a short visit, but I know the kids enjoyed their full day with them earlier in the week.

It's a rainy day in Minnesota, which is a relief from the 100+ days that we've been experiencing. We're looking forward to having a full day at home together, without needing to run a million places to get stuff done. Happy Sunday!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Exploring Local Places

Last Sunday was the perfect day to explore an area that neither Arya nor I had been to before. We headed east to walk around the Vermillion Falls/River and Greenway area. The path was nicely paved, with lots of overhead shade from trees; there were so many families out on bikes and walking, and we had a nice view of the Vermillion River. Arya got some great pics, and I enjoyed spending time outdoors with my sweet girl. This weekend, G and I will be heading out to explore a creek area in a few towns just south of us. And I've already got an idea for another creek I want to walk by next month (it's a bit further away, and I'd rather put that aside until Arya is off at college) The tree leans to find the sun On the way home, we stopped at the DQ in another town (we have a love/hate relationship with the DQ in our town, so I wanted to avoid it.) The warm weather felt great, and we enjoyed some sweet treats while watching the world drive by. We're counting down the days unti...

What a Week

The weather has been unseasonably warm this fall, so we've been able to extend our outdoor projects just a bit.  This past week Scott's been working in the garden, cleaning everything out, and repairing the back wall of our garage.  Ava was such a good little helper, scooping up dirt, but still trying to keep her hands clean while doing it! I swear, a box is all she needs to make her happy. Princess Darla. Princess Darla has had enough.  I personally like how she and Ava have the same expressions in this picture. Apparently Spanky was bored - check out that yawn in the background! We went down to Grand Meadow this weekend, and as always, it was so fun to see Ava and Isabel play together.  They actually had several little conversations with each other - and they were so polite while doing so!  We even had them share a room last night...boy, that was a challenge.  I think they finally fell asleep around 10:00pm.  And of course, Ava wa...

Preparing for Vacation

We had a low key week, which is rare in this house. Oh sure, there were fun field trips at Summer Power, a visit to the splash pad on a hot day, and a few crazy, rain storms, but it was an easy week. Well, there was that one time when we were out for dinner with G (Ava was with Grandma Karen and Grandpa Doug for an overnight stay and a trip to the Dakota County Fair - fun!) and G decided to hide behind my chair and puke all over me and the floor (at the restaurant.) Ugh. The good news is that he was just too full of chocolate milk...no illness! A quiet week, once in a while, is an okay thing! We're starting to prep for our vacation to the Wisconsin Dells...we don't take too many family vacations, so this is a big event for us. (Funny, I took a break from writing this post as Scott just asked me about planning a trip to Disney...we were debating the differences between going to California vs. Florida...pros and cons to each!) Yesterday, I showed G a video from one of the wat...