A tale of a robins nest

A few days ago I was sitting on the front porch (it was actually warm enough!) and noticed some robins flying in and out of an evergreen bush on the side of our house, upon close inspection, I noticed a well camouflaged nest of baby robins! I've seen plenty of robins nests in our yard, but I always happen upon them in the fall after the leaves are long gone and the baby birds have grown and flown away. I was so excited to tell the kids, they are at such a fun age to appreciate things like baby birds in nests. Of course the kids were thrilled to find a nest with baby birds and ever since, I've been getting 50x daily baby bird updates! Harrison would sit on the front porch for an hour and note the comings and goings of the birds. We've been reading up on the life cycle of robins and have been very excited about the whole thing. Well, today Harrison rushed inside and shouted that the baby bird had fallen from the nest, and that I should come quick! We discovered that today was the day the birds were going to fly the coop and leave the nest, all 4 baby birds jumped from the nest and were hopping around the yard! This kind of excitement ranks right up there with Disneyland for my kids!

Harrison wanted desperately to hold one! Turns out wild animals are called wild for a reason. He never did get to hold it.

This baby would open his mouth wide whenever Harrison would get his finger close! I kept missing the action shot, baby birds are hard to capture with a camera!

They have one cornered! Notice the long stick that Henry was using to  defend himself against the birds.

This one hopped into our garage! We never did see if it hopped out. Guess we'll find out in a few days, right?

The empty nest.

Mom and dad robin were always hovering, letting us know that we were too close to the babies.

We found a worm to feed them, but then they had all disappeared! 

I think this is the most fun we have all had in a while! This is such a magical age, I cherish (most) every minute I get with these kids!

Wishing that he was fishing

My parents are coming for a long awaited visit this weekend, it's been more than 2 years since they've darkened our doorstep and we all are so excited! Harrison especially loves Grandpa Greg, who won a spot in his heart when Grandpa made sure to take time off and take Harrison fishing when we were in town last August. For the past year he's kept a picture in his room (sometimes in his pocket, actually) of he and grandpa holding the fish he caught and cooked (and ate!). So in anticipation of their upcoming visit, he wanted to make sure he had everything in order.

 He has to check the line to make sure it isn't broken, organize his lures and make sure that pesky Henry doesn't poke his finger with any stray hooks laying around.

See that red chair in the background? Harrison set it up especially for me so I could have somewhere comfortable to sit while I'm outside with him. He's always looking out for his mother, that one is!  I'm not sure if Saturday can come fast enough for this little guy.

Improvise

I've never been big on letting my kids drink juice, I prefer they eat their fruit whole and then drink milk or water, but Maya's been taking a lunch packed from home every day this school year, and tucking a juice box in her lunch is quick and easy. The trouble is Henry.... every morning when he spies me packing Maya's lunch, he'll beg, whine and cry for a juice box. I usually cave and let him have one, but not every morning. This morning he decided to improvise and make his own juice drink.... I have to give him credit for ingenuity!

And I'm sure glad he's in his underpants and not dressed yet, you should see the amount of watermelon juice covering his little body (and the table, and the chair... floor. etc)!

Party time!

Tadd had a birthday yesterday and we celebrated by doing lots of yardwork, housework and buying new work suits (yes, he had to go clothes shopping for his birthday, I think that is the last thing on his "birthday fun" list). So to make up for the lack of fun we had yesterday, we figured he needed a real celebration today. His mom brought over the birthday dinner  of his choice (brats and root beer floats) and all his siblings and nieces and nephews were in attendance. We had a great time and enjoyed some very rare 80 degree weather, with no mosquitos! Of course when all the cousins get together it must be documented, so out came the cameras.

Have you ever seen such fun cousins? These kids love each other...

Here they all are! From oldest to youngest. I just love all these darling kids! I tried to get some pictures of the adult siblings, but it turns out it's harder to get a group shot of 30-something year old men than a bunch of preschoolers- go figure. We partied until a thunderstorm rolled in and then it was time for bed.

Just hanging around

Well hello there? Where have I been? Just hanging around with my kids. sometimes literally.

Our sweet (possibly overbearing?) elderly neighbor likes to scold my kids when they're climbing the tree in our front yard. "You'll fall and hurt yourself!" "You need to come down right now!"

They do eventually come down (and hardly ever fall). And to tell you the truth, I'm just glad he's actually got clothes on. He could be climbing the tree in his underpants, right? And look... SHOES too!! I deserve mother of the year.

Three!

So my baby turned three today. I can hardly believe it.... three? He is such and joy and blessing to our family, we love him dearly!! Here are some things I want to remember about Henry on his third birthday...

He loves to be outside! He will go outside even when it's freezing cold and stay until he can't feel his hands and feet anymore

He loves to push trucks around, even better if a little friend is here to race with him.

He loves his brother and sister, he's so bored when they're not home (which is why he's enrolled in preschool this fall, with Harrison and Maya both at school every day, he's going to be bored!)

His favorite foods are - hash browns, pizza, cheese crackers, watermelon (actually any fruit) vegetables dipped in ranch dressing, plain noodles with butter and sometimes I can sneak some parmesan cheese on top if I'm tricky, dum dum suckers, scrambled eggs (yesterday morning, he ate three eggs by himself!) and cereal. He's such a cautious eater compared to my other two, but at least he's expanded his palate since his second birthday when all he would eat was nasty chicken nuggets and fries!

He is fully potty trained and doesn't take any more naps (at all, ever!!)

He loves to socialize with other kids and seems to have missed the "shy" gene that Maya and Harrison have. The other day we were at a fast food restaurant and I gave Maya and Harrison some money and told them they could have an ice cream cone if they ordered for it themselves. They refused, but guess who did? That's right... Henry.

His favorite thing in the world right now is to go to Grandma and Grandpa's house and have a campfire and roast marshmallows- so guess what we're doing tonight for his birthday?!! Here are a few pictures of my sweet Henry from his birthday morning.

 Happy boy gets an entire plate of hash browns to himself. He would eat hash browns three times a day if I would let him!

So excited to get his very first remote control car!

Look mom!

Someone else isn't very excited that Henry was the sole recipient of the car.

Stay tuned for more pictures of the campfire and birthday cake tonight!

Almost no-knead baguettes

I've been making this fun french bread recipe twice in the past 2 days, it's such a fun, easy recipe, I had to share! I first made it a few years ago when it was featured on La Fuji Mama.  I completely forgot about it until a few days ago when I needed to bring some fresh bread to a playdate but didn't have any time to squeeze a batch of my regular whole wheat bread between my exercise class and the playdate. This recipe was perfect because all the work is done the night before! All I needed to do the next morning was to take the dough out of the fridge and let it raise for a few hours while I was exercising. Perfect! Tadd commented that it was better than a bakery, and with only 3 ingredients, well 4 if you count water, and basically no kneading, it's a definite winner, and will be on the menu often.

Almost no-knead baguettes

1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
4 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp instant yeast
1 1/2 tsp salt

Stir all the ingredients together with a wooden spoon, turn onto counter and knead a few times (I found that I needed to add a tablespoon or two of water to my dough, it was too stiff), place back in the bowl, cover and let raise on your counter for 2 hours. Then place in the fridge overnight or for up to 7 days. When you're ready to bake, remove the bread from the fridge and turn out to a greased counter. Press down and let sit for 15 minutes. Shape into 2 long skinny loaves (mine were maybe 15 inches long) and lay on a greased cookie sheet, cover with plastic wrap. Let rise for about 1 1/2 hours or until very puffy. Mine had to raise 2 hours. When the loaves are ready to bake, preheat oven to 450 degrees, make a few diagonal slashes with a knife, spritz with water, and place in preheated oven to bake. Bake for 25-30 minutes, then cool completely before serving. (I spread some butter on the tops of the bread when they came out of the oven to give them a pretty color, but this is optional, and may take away from the crusty outside.)

This is a really great basic recipe, and your family will think they've stepped into a bakery when these are coming out of the oven! Enjoy!