Wordless Wednesday

Bird Watch

About two months ago we finally hung up our bird feeder. Yes, it was hanging on the end of our hammock until this week. We can see it from the dining room door and window. I have been so surprised by the number of birds we have had. This is a great way to kick off some nature study AND it will be great next year when we study the state birds. Aly has really enjoyed it. I bought her a pull out bird guide at the convention and it gets used weekly. We even had a wren (we think) build her nest in the grill on our patio. I'll post pictures of the baby birds later. Here's a few of the birds that we've seen so far.

A sparrow ... I knew exactly what kind in April when I took the picture, now I don't remember. Probably a Chipping Sparrow, we see these very often.

A House Finch. We have only seen this one once. It was so pretty.

Um, not a bird, but a regular diner at the bird feeder.

Chipping Sparrow

And yes, even a Blue Jay! I was surprised to see him, but he has visited a few times.

We have also seen Black Capped Chickadees, Cardinals, Wrens, and what we think is a Cowbird. Skyeler is hoping to get a Goldfinch Feeder for her bedroom window soon. I bought a suet feeder yesterday, but today it was broke apart and the whole suet cake was missing. Not sure if the squirrel was the culprit or something bigger.

My Green Thumb

This weekend Dan and I worked on the front flower beds. The casual viewer of the blog may wonder why this is blog-worthy. Well, to put it in the words of my best friend in the world "Wow Ang! I didn't know you knew what topsoil and mulch WERE!!" Yes, Cheryl loves me :) Dan had already cut out one of the trees with the chainsaw. Yesterday, he pulled another one out with the car. We still have a little more mulch to buy. Not having done this before, well, we really didn't know how much we were going to need. It looks a little more bare than I had anticipated, but I know that we have to see if a) I can actually keep a plant alive and b)how the ones I picked grow. In any case, it looks so much better than it did with partially dead, overgrown trees and old mulch with no flowers.

From the driveway

Coming up the sidewalk...I even bought a cute this sign thingy to go in the flowerbed

In front of the house...not completely done

Aly and Skyeler did actually help, but then Aly wandered off. Aly has gotten into something again because she has another rash. I swear she must feel it in the air and get poison whatever it is. It's on her ear and by her nose and eyebrow. She's been itchy all day. In retracing her steps for the last couple days I can't find where she got it. Ugh!

A Note from Me

Wow! It has been busy around here! Obviously, since I haven't posted since April. I will hopefully find the time now to catch up around here and post some pictures of our activities. School is winding down. We had testing day on Tuesday with our home school co-op. Skyeler still has to finish up her history book (about four chapters), her literature book (about two chapters), and her science book (two modules). Aly is done for the most part. Both girls have geography posters to finish before our Home School Showcase the first Sunday in June. The girls will continue with math throughout the summer (as time allows). Aly needs this to cement her addition and subtraction facts before heading into multiplication next year. Skyeler will be trying a different approach to Algebra over the summer and then I'll reassess and see where we need to go with a curriculum for her in the fall.

Skyeler is already training for her volunteer job at the Mission's camp. Her job ... a Jr. Wrangler. She'll be working one or two days a week in the barn and doing games with the kids. One thing about Skye, when it comes to being around horses she's not afraid of getting dirty and she's not afraid of hard work (the fear of hard work only manifests itself at home ... weird!). Her first day is June 1st.

Aly is finishing up her second six weeks of tennis lessons. We'll be taking a break for the next six weeks since she would miss a couple weeks for trips to Granny and Papa's. I hope that they continue to offer this class, though, as she is really enjoying this. Now that summer is here, I need to get her out to the tennis courts and let her practice some. Currently she has a one track mind about getting a pool for the summer. A big one. I don't know what we'll be doing about that. :)

That's a little bit of a summary of what's going on. Over the weekend I'll be getting some pictures up of some of our field trips as well as just some around the house stuff.