Red Fox Kits

I've gone back a couple times to see the fox kits. The second time I got permission to enter the fenced in area so I could sit and wait for the foxes to come out. Obviously it was so much easier to take pictures inside the fence! They were SO stinking cute! I saw 5 at a time, but I don't know if they were all babies. They were all about the same size, their coats all looked similiar, and they were all very playful. In fact, they rough-housed and fought like naughty little kids. My guess is that they were all babies, but I don't know for sure. I ended up being there almost 2 hours and took nearly 400 pictures! Thank goodness for digital cameras! The first three pictures were taken through the fence the first time I went back, the rest were taken during that second trip. (I know the pouncing picture is really blurry, but it was too cute not to share!)

 

 

He studied that chunk of mud and then...

he attacked...

and attacked again.

He was sneaking up on his brother.

Play Ball!

Today was the opening day of baseball season. I am so glad!!! It is so fun to spend our summer evenings cheering on Danielle and her team.

Today started with the annual opening day parade. It was a little drizzly, but it was nice not to be suffocating in the heat. (That came later in the day!)

See that face? She was determined to pelt us with candy!

See that box of Nerds flying toward the camera? Sure enough, she nailed me. :)

She was fortunate enough to be drafted by the same coaches that she had last year. They are a great group of guys who do a great job instructing and encouraging. Danielle learned a lot last year, so we were really glad she could learn from these guys again this year. Danielle moved up an age level this year, so she now plays kid pitch. That will take a little getting use to. I just hope she doesn't get hit by a pitch early in the season! After the pitcher pitches four balls, the coach gets to come in and pitch. I think Danielle's strategy at this point is to hope that the pitcher will throw balls and wait for the coach to come in! As the season progresses, I think the pitchers will improve and she will just have to learn to hit their strikes. She'll get there. They can steal bases in this level, and she really enjoys that. She is fast!

 

Danielle's team did a great job and won their first game, 13-3. Danielle did a great job, too. Hooray for softball season (& only 8 days of school left)!!

Our Day Off

The kids and I took Wednesday off, slept in, and then visited the metropark's working historical farm for a couple hours. We were hoping to see the baby animals but we should have gone last month; They weren't so tiny any more. It was still a nice time. I pretended it was summer break, and that made me happy. :)

The piglets weren't so little any more.

Band Concert

Tyler had his final band concert of the year on Monday evening. I am so impressed with how much he has improved over the course of 9 months. His Aunt Nikki has helped tremendously by giving him a few private lessons here and there. He really seems to enjoy playing, and I think she was a big part of that. His band teacher is a pretty great guy, too. He did a great job Monday evening. All the kids did. The first video is just the 5th grade playing one of their songs. The 2nd video is of both the 5th & 6th grades playing together. They sounded great!



5th & 6th grade bands

My Gift

For Mother's Day the kids gave me some homemade cards and a small bird bath fountain for my little butterfly garden. I have to tell you - I love this little thing! It is the perfect size for the small space I have. It is solar powered and it doesn't store the energy, so it is sporadic on overcast or cloudy days (which is actually kind of amusing to watch). The birds are still trying to figure it out. This afternoon I sat in the sunshine in my comfy adirondack chair, listened to my little fountain, and watched the hummingbirds and other birds visit my feeders. The only things I'm missing are butterflies.

Arise and Call Her Blessed

Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: "Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all." Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Honor her for all that her hands have done, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.   Proverbs 31: 28-31

In honor of my moms on this Mother's Day:

My mom learned from the best. There is no one in the world quite like my grandma.

My mom worked hard for all we had and loved us above all. Through life's ups and downs, she was the constant. Saying I'm grateful to have her as my mom barely begins to scratch the surface. Now that I am older, I am lucky to have her as my friend.

I couldn't have picked a better stepmom. She is a wonderful friend. She always seems to know when I need a sounding board or just that phone call that says someone's thinking of me. Our family would not be the same without her and I am so grateful God brought her into our lives.

I am blessed to have a wonderful mother-in-law who raised a wonderful son into a great man and father. She never criticizes or points out ways I could do things better. She just loves & accepts. I am a better person for having her influence, wisdom, and friendship in my life.

These ladies have all modeled the way to be a Godly mother, and I am so thankful for their love, friendship, prayers, guidance, and wisdom.

When my children grow up, I hope they will look at me through adult eyes full of love and respect. Being a mom is a hard job, and I often wonder if I'm doing it right. I hope I am a mother worthy of my children's and husband's honor and praise.

More Critters

I have wanted to take a picture of a fox (in the "wild") for quite some time, but they are so difficult to find! I finally found a fox family, but their den is under a building which is inside a locked fence. So, I couldn't really get very close and I had to shoot through the chain links, but I did manage to get a picture of a fox! This little guy was very curious and peeked out a few times to check on us. I plan to go back and hopefully catch him or the rest of his family all the way out in the grass sometime because this wasn't exactly the backdrop I was hoping for!

Check out this guy's cheeks!!

I've had a flock of pine siskins visit my backyard the past couple days. I've only had them in my yard one other time and that was a couple years ago. I also had my first hummingbird of the season today. They are very late this year, but I'm glad they finally made it!

We had our annual summer-fun-fund yard sale today. I organized a neighborhood sale again this year, and it appeared to be successful. It looked like a lot of houses participated, and there was a steady stream of customers all day. Honestly, this sale isn't quite as important to me now that I am working and collecting a regular paycheck, but it has become a fun tradition that I would miss. It is also a good way to clear "stuff" out of the house and gives us lots of quarters for those rare occasions the ice cream truck goes through our development! We did about the same as we do every year, and we cleared a lot of stuff out of the house. The kids sold brownies and lemonade but were not as into it this year. It was pretty chilly today and they are getting older. We'll see if the fund lasts as long as the fun this summer.

Photo Sundries

Barn swallow

I wish the sky wasn't so washed out (it wasn't very blue today) or this would be a neat picture.
Check out the bill on the guy to the far right. Looks like he had an accident at some point.

Losing his winter coat

A storm moved through as the sun was setting tonight. Made for a very beautiful sky.

This & That

We now have 4 eggs in the window nesting box, but the daddy house sparrow did not like me peeking in at them, so he stuffed more grass in to fill the small hole I was looking through. Now I can't see anything. And if I can't see anything, I really don't think there's any reason to let them have their babies in my nesting box! Danielle doesn't like it when I talk about scrambling their eggs, though, so I will just grin and bear it until they've fledged. I will have to take the nesting box down, thoroughly clean it, and put it some place else, though. House sparrows are very territorial and once they've claimed a nesting box, it is very difficult to redirect them. Have I mentioned how much I hate house sparrows?!

Here are a few sparrows I do not hate.

Song sparrow

Field sparrow

Chipping sparrow

Ron finished his chairs and the matching footstools. We are going to get a fire pit and will use the footstools as benches for the kids when we want to all sit around the fire pit. The chairs are beautiful. Ron did such a nice job on them. They are really comfortable, too.

The elementary school carnival was this weekend. Tyler played the cake walk with his first two tickets and won a cake. He was excited! Danielle played later and also won. She picked out a tray of cookies and has been very stingy with sharing them! Unfortunately Tyler's cake looked better than it tasted. It is nice having older kids. After we walked around with them for a few minutes, Ron and I sat in the lunchroom and chatted with friends while the kids ran around and had fun for awhile. It was fun. Tonight was Danielle's Language Arts Fair. Danielle had lots of nice work on display. I made her pose for a picture beside her "yard" of spring project.