It's all about birds....

 We have been learning all about the birds this past week.  We have studied the art of Audubon and we have been on the lookout for our own native birds. 

The origami passenger pigeon above is made with a template from "Fold The Flock" This site tells all about the extinction of the passenger pigeon and also has some very cool videos. 

 I made the kids a chart of all the birds we see in this area....I found the original printout at Jimmie's Collage.   I have since added many, many  more birds to our list. I simply look up images of the particular birds on google images, cut and paste them to a document and then print them out.

I have to say, the kids are becoming experts in identifying birds.  

We have many resources that we are using...I will get to them in the next few days. 

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Pinterest has been my go to guide for all things crafty and birdy!

I found a few different terracotta diy birdbath.  I'm combining two different birdbaths.  One  idea is from My-CreativiT.  The other element...a jeweled and grouted bowl....if from Happiness is Homemade.

Laura and Kimberly did the most work on our project....

They painted yesterday and Kimmy is almost clean today.  

We sealed the whole project with a heavy duty outdoor sealant. 

We used Goop heavyduty glue outside to keep the fumes at bay. We need to leave about 48 hours to set completely, and then we will be using grout to finish it off.

The 2015 Twin Photo Shoot!

 It's a week late, but I finally had a chance to post some of the "twin week" photos.
It's a pretty special week when my babies are the same age.

They are each others best friend....

best buddies....

always ready to give each other a hand.  (Kimberly had to get Luke up on the rock)

They are lonely when they are apart.  Kimberly had a terrible time when Luke was recently in the hospital..she wasn't allowed to visit and was very sad..

They are both in 3rd grade this year and doing great.

Luke's favorite food is tacos. Kim's favorite is homemade macaroni and cheese. 

 

This year Luke's favorite subject in school is math and his favorite book is Harry Potter.

Kim's favorite subject is reading and her favorite book is The Willoughby's

One year old

two

three

four

five

six

seven

eight

and NINE!!

Mother Nature is amazing

 Mother nature is amazing.  Our maple tree went from blossoms to full leaves and whirly birds in just 8 days.

Springtime planting Weekly Wrap-Up May 3-May8

Year after year we try to do some fun gardening project with the kids. 

(Luke, cultivating with the claw end of a hammer. You make do with what you have on hand)

Year after year the bunnies eat all the sprouts!!

Danny investigated at Lowes to find the proper needed "ingredients"for a bean pole teepee.  

Here he is tying the four poles together at the top.

We then wrapped the poles with twine so the beans (and morning glories) have something to grab hold of.

Kimberly also became an expert in wrapping twinw tightly around the poles.

The kids had fun finding worms...

Getting the ground ready with Luke, Kim and Laura.

Luke's just plain likes this tool.

Digging a little deeper and planting the pole bean and morning glory seeds. (we hope to add a little bright color to our tee pee with the flowers.)

All finished!--Minus the fencing.

8 days later the rabbit fence is up....

and so are the bean and morning glory sprouts.

Mark worked very hard, digging up this very hard dirt.  Kim it getting the ground ready for the sunflower seeds.

Poor Luke, he hasn't been feeling well today...I thought helping us would pep him up(especially because he has been looking forward for planting day...It only worked for a few minutes and then he returned to the couch.

 Luke getting the soil ready

Little, little seeds, I really hope we have great results this year.

planting

You can do it little seeds...

The final watering for today of the seeds....it has been dry for so long, we are watering everything two times a day.

Hopefull the rabbit wire will give a good results and protect our tender sprouts

We did have great results in 2007__I think we due to success!

Yarn Along--May 6

~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading, and I love seeing what other people are knitting and reading as well. So, what are you knitting or crocheting right now? What are you reading? Take a photo and share it either on your blog, on Instagram (#yarnalong), or on Flickr. Leave a link below to share your photo with the rest of us! ~  Ginny 

I'm doing a little Mother's Day knitting right now...(shhhh it's a secret)  

The hanging dish towel is almost complete.  

This is my favorite dish towel pattern.... the Simply Striped Kitchen Hand Towel.

We have one chapter left in our read aloud... Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing.  The kids are loving this book.  We have also started a science unit on birds, so we have started out with picture books about John James Audobon.  

Have a great week knitting and reading everyone!

Sunset Over Oneida Lake

 Sunset over Oneida Lake from Verona Beach State Park