Cedar Waxwings

Early afternoon, as I walked out our back door to sweep off the porch, I heard the sounds of cedar waxwings.  They don’t have the same tweet sounds of most birds or the sounds of singing.  It reminds me kind of an insect sound, with a bird like mix….sort of.  If you go to the following site and scroll down about half way, you can click on the Sounds tab to hear them.  The sounds I hear as I go out my door are a mixture of the “Call Rapidly Trilled Whistle” and “Calls of Flocks”.  They have been in our apples trees most of the day picking and eating apple blossoms.  Living where I do give me many awe moments…….you never know what you will see or hear as you step out the door.

Beautiful..Just Before Dark, Sunset

I was sitting at my computer when I heard my husband yell………….. Marsha, come here, QUICK.  I ran into the dining room as he pointed out this beautiful, just before dark, sunset.  I ran to get my camera but as in all sunsets, it was fading fast.  I managed to get a few shots in before it was gone.  Don’t ya just love Awe moments?!

Red Shafted Woodpecker on Backyard

This little Red Shafted Woodpecker comes on our yard frequently, grubbing for worms.  Anyways, we think it’s the same bird but then again, they all seem to look alike.  This one, however, does not have the bright red coloring on his cheeks that I’ve seen on other Red Shafted Woodpeckers.  They are a fun bird to watch.  I don’t know if it was a Red Shafted Woodpecker or not but we used to have a woodpecker that would peck away at a transformer on our power pole just out our front door.  That was pretty annoying.  The sound was a really loud ping, ping, ping, and he was around in the summer for several years.  Don’t know what happened to him but one year he just didn’t come back, which didn’t hurt our feelings any.  What a crazy bird!

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Flowering Crabapple Tree

We have the most beautiful, flowering crabapple tree out our back door.  People who travel along the highway past our home have commented about our tree numerous times.  What an awe feeling you get when you look out our windows or even more so, when you just go outside and admire such a beautiful creation.  God must have been having a super day when he created this wonderful tree.  Maybe he was thinking of our Heavenly Mother one day, walked to her side and stated…..”look what I created for you today, Dear!”

Yet, another super day – Wow!

Kindergarten Graduation 2013 – Jungle Theme

Last night was Kindergarten Graduation and the little Kinders were adorable.  We chose to go with a jungle theme this year which took much more planning than in previous years.  But when all was said and done, it was well worth it.  Since our school is trying to cut down on costs, the auditorium is off limits unless the weather is warm enough to heat the auditorium naturally.  We planned to have graduation in the elementary school library in case of cold weather.  I think it was actually nicer than using the auditorium because we could decorate at our own pace and not make so many trips packing everything over to the other school, where the auditorium is. 

The teacher thought it would be cute to make masks for the children to wear while they sang their song…Animales and recited parts from the book…Rumble in the Jungle.  It took us awhile to figure out how to do the masks, looking at many pictures on the internet.  We couldn’t find exactly everything we wanted so some mask patterns were made by looking at different pictures of animals and drawing our own.  We made masks for each of the following animals….…gazelle, alligator, zebra, giraffe, lion, and tiger.  Cute, cute, cute!  The children were so excited wearing their own personal mask.

When I made the programs and diplomas this year, I didn’t start from scratch….I took the basic parts from last year and just added the jungle animals.  Even though I took the basics, it still acquired a lot of time finding pictures on the net that did not have watermarks or copyright laws.  One of these year-r-r-r-rs, I’m going to figure out how to make my own clipart.  I enjoy designing and making cards, handouts, etc.

Hearty Little Dandelion Multiplies

Remember this hearty, little dandelion that I posted about a little over 3 weeks ago.

My daughter commented on the post that I should kill it before it multiplies.  It looks like I should have taken her advise.  Look at all the dandelions we have now, just out our back door.  I don’t think I have ever seen this many dandelions on our lawn.  Looks like it’s time for Mr. Weed-B-Gon!  Guess I’ll have to see if he can make a visit to our home this weekend.

Dirty Little Fingerprints – Keychain

I work with a student at school and I searched all over the net to come up with something cute and different that he could give to his mother for Mother’s Day.  I found a place where a fingerprint was placed in clay and made for a mother with an attached poem.  I loved it and since I already had some Super Sculpey, sculpturing compund that I’ve had for at least 13 years, I thought I would get it out and see if it would still be pliable enough to work with.  It worked like new so I took it to work the next morning and when the time came to work with my student, off to work we went rolling out clay, cutting out hearts with a miniature cookie cutter, and pressing little fingers into clay.  The pressing of little fingers into clay was the fun part.  Do you know how many times we had to re-roll, stamp, and press to get three good fingerprints?………..!  Most were finger DIGS…took awhile to get a nice print without the total destruction of the clay.  We made three to make sure at least one of them would work.  I brought them home that evening so I could bake and paint them and make a fingerprint card to attach one too.  I had decided earlier to make a keychain from the fingerprint heart and after a little searching, I found a keychain that we no longer used that would serve the purpose.  It turned out So Cute and I think his mom will really like it.

Oh Deer, Deer, Deer!

We are getting quite the herd of deer around our place.  There are anywhere from 30-50 head in our fields by our home, daily/nightly.  Tonight as we looked out our dining room window, they were all over the yard.  They are fun to watch but they sure are destructive to our property.  It’s sad to say but many drivers, not from our area, are not aware off all the deer by our home and as a result, many deer are killed and many cars are wrecked.  Just thought I’d show you the deer on our back yard tonight.

And look at this one.  This one is my favorite…..what a scraggly little guy with the cutest ears. 

Here’s a video of the deer on our yard.  My husband decided to scare them off because they were starting to eat the trees.

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