This and That

First, here are a couple more pictures of Snappy. We tried to measure him yesterday so we can keep track of his growth. Turtles are measured by the length of their shells, so our little guy is about an inch long. If he is a male, when he is fully grown he'll be between 4 & 6 inches long. He ate a piece of a worm today, so that was a very good sign. It's fun to watch him swim; he moves each leg independently rather than 2 of them at a time. I'll post a video some time.

Danielle humored me and let me take some pictures of her today. Apparently it was too sunny, though, because she was squinting in most of my pictures. She is crazy about dandelions.

Uncle Ron & Danielle had some fun at the playground this afternoon.

In Danielle's Words...

(Danielle asked me if she could pick out a picture of the turtle and write a couple things for me to post. So, basically, this is Danielle's post.)

I found a turtle at the park. It is an Eastern painted turtle. Its name is Snappy. Snappy is a baby turtle. He is funny. Snappy likes to eat worms. Snappy likes to swim. Snappy is cute.

More Wildlife

Although a cold front moved through last night, it was a beautiful day today! We took advantage of the sunshine and tried out a new-to-us trail and pond at a nearby metropark.

We went for a walk around the pond. Some of the trail went through a wooded area, which is where we think we picked up some ticks. Danielle was the only one who didn't have a hitchhiker. We found one on Tyler's head after we got home. It had already attached itself, so we had to get out the tweezers and fingernail polish. It was our children's first experience with ticks. I guess I didn't adequately explain to the kids about the ticks and overlooked telling them that they don't suck out all your blood. Apparently losing all his blood was a little more than Tyler could handle, so he was pretty upset about the tick on his head. Oops. Once I realized why he was so upset I quickly explained. I think he's traumatized now. Anyway...

When we got to the other side of the pond, the path was covered with gravel. Danielle loves shiny rocks, so she was paying close attention and happened upon a treasure today. She found this little turtle hatchling. As you can see, it was all dirty and kind of dry, like he hadn't been in the water for awhile. With as little as it is, it's quite possible it hadn't made it down to the water yet. The kids thought it was really neat and begged me to let them keep it. More about that in a minute. I was amazed she noticed him, but Danielle always manages to find the bird that's hiding in the branches or frog that's partially covered in mud. She's neat like that.

We finished out our afternoon with a little fishing. Danielle had several bites but didn't manage to land any. Tyler didn't catch any either. Ron caught the first fish of the season. Isn't he HUGE? We laughed so hard about this little guy. And holding him closer to the camera still doesn't make him look bigger! Ron ended up catching 4 other fish that were bigger than this guy. We had a good time.

I gave in and we brought the turtle home. We searched the internet to identify him. What did people do without the internet??!! We discovered that he is an Eastern painted turtle. Most likely it is a male because the gender of these turtles is determined by the temperature of the eggs. Since it has not been consistently over 80, it is probably a male. It does not still have its egg tooth but does still have a rather fresh looking scar from where its yolk sac was attached, so it can't be more than a few days old. He loves the water and is fun to watch. Already I like him better than the leopard frog, and his coloring is very pretty. Once we get his habitat set up, I'll post more pictures (assuming he survives overnight!).

For the Birds

Before this post goes to the birds, here is a token kid picture. I caught Danielle mid jump the other day and thought it looked kind of funny. It looks like she's walking but both feet are off the ground.

After I dropped the kids off at school this morning, I took my camera and headed to the metropark. The last time I was there early, I saw some deer and was hoping to get some pictures of one today. I walked as quietly as I could to the bench along the path in the woods, sat, and waited. I waited for quite awhile but didn't see anything more than a robin and a squirrel. So I slowly headed down the rest of the path, still hoping to see something. I still didn't see anything. I finally decided to call it quits, turned my camera off, and headed back to the car. Suddenly I heard a rustling noise behind me. I whipped around in time to see a deer dash across the path right behind me and run through the woods. It was like she was waiting until she knew I'd given up! The joke was on her, though. I managed to get a picture anyway. Can't you see her?

You can't find her? Maybe this will help.

Yep, I only got her rear end. The kids thought that was hilarious.

I walked the direction the deer was headed, but I didn't see her again. I decided to sit and watch the birds at the birdfeeders instead.

Mr. & Mrs. Eastern Bluebird. Mrs. Bluebird was looking right at me.

A red bellied woodpecker.

I stopped at another park on the way home and saw these beautiful tree swallows. Their feathers were so shiny in the sunlight. As I was walking closer to the bird box to get a better picture, I heard a noise at my feet. When I looked down, I found this guy about 3' away from my feet! I wasn't paying any attention to what was on the ground, and I'm so glad I didn't step on him!!

Playing Catch

Ron played catch with the kids for a little while this afternoon. Danielle has to begin her spring training for tball. :) I thought it was cute that Danielle was playing catch in her dress and sandals. I also like that the smiles (and looks of concentration) were not posed. They were just having fun with Dad.
























I know there are a lot of pictures that all kind of look the same, but I couldn't decide which ones to post. Aren't the kids looking so old? sniff sniff

























Danielle wanted me to post the picture of her on the swing because she thinks it looks like she has "fire hair".

Ah-Ah-AH-CHOO!!!

Let's just say the pollen count has been extremely high the past few days. I'm sure our beautiful cherry tree is one of the culprits.

Happy Easter

Here are a few pictures from Easter.

We always have our own egg hunt in the morning with the eggs the kids colored the night before. (I hide them right before they start looking. No rotten eggs yet.) The decorating kit I bought had supplies to make the eggs into monsters, hence the fuzzy eggs. (It's hair, not mold.) Since the kids don't believe in the Easter bunny, we did a little treasure hunt with clues for them to follow in order to find their Easter goodies. That was a lot of fun, and I think we'll probably add that to our Easter morning traditions, too.

We enjoyed lunch and our yearly Easter egg hunt at Mamaw & Papaw's. The weather could not have been any more perfect. As always, Mamaw outdid herself. The kids enjoyed looking for the eggs, redeeming their prizes, and playing with their cousins. It was a great day.

Check out this picture from last year's egg hunt. I can't believe how different Danielle looks. She's certainly grown up a lot in one year!