Bikes, Books, and Birds

On Tuesday the kids and I hit the bike path at the metropark. We also walked a small trail through the woods and took some time to play on the playset. We saw 2 deer - one on our ride and one on our walk. We followed this one out of the woods to see if there were any others. There weren't, but we thought it was funny that she was still watching us, too.

On our bike ride, we saw 2 bobolinks that were singing to each other. They are very pretty birds with a very pretty song. On our walk we were lucky enough to see 3 pileated woodpeckers. This is the one bird I have been hoping to see since I started birdwatching, and wouldn't you know - I didn't have my binoculars or my good camera with me! Oh well. Regardless, we had a really good afternoon together. It was a great way to kick off our summer adventures.

Danielle has become quite the reader. She persuaded Uncle Ron to let her read about 20 books to him the other night. When we went to the library Tuesday morning, Danielle decided she wanted to learn about peacocks. So, she picked out a book about peacocks from the nonfiction section, took it home, and read it. I thought it was so cool that she wanted to learn more about something and took the initiative to do it. Watching the kids learn to read ranks right up there as one of my all-time favorite milestones!

Here are a couple more pictures of the bluejay babies. I've heard them, but haven't seen them in my trees since earlier in the week when I took these pictures.