Morning Bluebirds

I'm fascinated with the bluebirds this spring. These pics were taken in 10 spare minutes on our way out to school this morning. The rest are here including a few woodpecker shots.

Proud Bluebird Parents

I was lucky enough to find a few minutes to try to take more pics of the bluebirds in Danny and Christine's yard this morning. I was very happy to get the shot below.

To see the rest of the pics, look here.

Baby Bluebirds

Two weeks ago, I posted a picture of a bluebird nest in Christine and Danny's bluebird box that had 6 eggs in it. Well, the baby birds have hatched, and here some pics of the babies. Enjoy!

The pictures above and below are the mama bird.

The picture below is the papa bird.

Little People

The boys have some Fisher Price Little People toys (go ahead, hit the link, you know you need to hear the theme song). Well, some is probably not the right adjective. You'll see in a minute. What I mean, is that like most kids these days, there are some Little People toys in the house. In all actuality, Mom is the one that likes Little People. Oh, the boys play with them alright, but Mom is the one down at the local thrift store buying dollar goodie bags hoping to find and rescue miscast Little People. Just ask my good friend, Debbie, about that and yard saling.

At any point, it had been a while since we'd played with the Little People toys. To steal a phrase from one of my other good friends, Patricia, we set up our "Little People Village" this afternoon on top of the pool table. In all honesty, the construction set and the airport runway just won't fit even with that much space to lay it out. However, I got most of it laid out while the boys had a good time playing. The car garage, house, and farm remain the alltime favorites at our house.

We have a lot of the holiday and special occassion sets too. I guess my very favorite set is the Christmas one with the candy shop, reindeer, and elves.

Here's to the little kid in all of us;-)

For more pics from today including crashing Hot Wheels cars, go here.

Cornbread

I made PW's spicy chicken legs again tonight. I was looking at PW's website last night and stumbled across a cornbread recipe. So, I got to thinking that I should try to make scratch cornbread for the first time in my life. As Dad will atest, the only cornbread us Northerners have ever eaten came straight from a Jiffy Mix box;-) And we didn't serve them with beans. It was ham and creamed corn!

Well, it wasn't hard to make at all. And, Joey was quite the helper, but I had missed reading that Ree doesn't like sweet cornbread. I tasted the batter, and it was a tad more bitter than I was prepared to eat, so I dumped in a 1/4 cup sugar. The batter seemed plenty moist enough to handle that without adding any more liquid.

I thought they turned out quite pretty and yummy. Joey took a few bites but was not sold. Johnny refused to even try...maybe tomorrow. I even had them buttered up. I enjoyed the one I let myself have, and making them was fun.

I have to say that I don't like crunchy bread, so I ignored the sizzle part of the recipe too. I don't even own an iron skillet (did I admit that?). The recipe turned out just fine in muffin cups;-)

If I'm not careful, my next cooking foray in the kitchen is gonna include fat back (hey, at least I know what it is).

Swedish Tea Rings

When we were making chocolate eclairs the other night, Joey flipped through the cookbook (Betty Crocker) and came across the Swedish Tea Ring recipe. He immediately thought it looked good and wanted to make it. I told him soon. Well, today was the day. I used to make this recipe for Dad when I was in high school. It's easy and a winner. If only I'd had the stand mixer when I was in high school!

Joey won't eat raisins or nuts, so the one on the right just has butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon. I felt like trying something new, so the one on the left has a yummy cream cheese filling in it.

If you want to see the play-by-play pics, they are here. We also made a homemade mushroom and cheese pizza tonight too.

The Real Easter Eggs

The boys and I walked Blaze after supper last night and ran into Danny and Madi. While the kids were running around in circles all excited to see each other, Danny and I snuck a peak at this bluebird nest. For years, Danny and Christine have had good success with the bluebird boxes in their yard. The nice thing about bluebirds is that they are not sensitive to you removing their nests for inspection. Also, the bluebird boxes that are sold around here usually come with a nesting cup. So, when you think you have eggs, you carefully open the box, let momma bird fly out, and gently lift out the cup for a peak. This year, the bird has laid a record 6 eggs. Cool! Super neat! Just fantastic! Hopefully in a few weeks I'll have a picture of the actual babies to post:-)

The rest of the pics from last night are here. Danny and Christine's wisteria vine looks awesome too. I had really hoped to get some pics with better lighting today, but of course it's cloudy with a threat of rain. I need sun!

More information on bluebird nesting is here and here.