birds, birds, birds

My Favourite visitor, we're hoping they'll make a nest in the backyard again this year!

The last few months we've had lots of birds in the front yard, some everyday, some just stopping in for a peek.  We have between 10 and 20 morning doves everyday, a little group of 5 chickadees and a white breasted nuthatch, and in the past few weeks the migrating birds have been stopping by! I've been using the birds to keep the kids busy. They could them and make Tally's, they look them up in the books, and they even try and spell them out. The Cornell lab of ornithology  has been amazing for resources, the kids love to listen to the bird calls and guess who they are and they're pretty good at it too! We joined Nest Watch and we're hoping to find a nest to observe.

A red tailed Hawk came a few times, trying to catch snack



Dave tail :)



Nut hatch

 

Grackles and Red winged black birds arrive hungry one afternoon a few weeks ago

 

 

Walking the water fowl

The last few months we've been trying to keep busy in the last of the snow and cold weather. March is always a hard month, everyone is done with the cold, putting on snow pants and mittens. But we seem to have made it and there are signs of spring everywhere :) We've been busy...

 building snow forts...




watching the birds



 

 

..

 walking the water fowl.

 

 

 We even hit the sugar bush...

 



 

I sure hope that April is warmer then March, Wesley has big plans for the garden and says he will be building a pond in the back yard. We're also on the look out for some birds nests as we plan on doing a bird nest reporting program online. So i'll keep you posted on our spring fun :)

Dishwasher fun :)

Ian brought home a dishwasher a few days ago and the kids have been loving the box. I had to share a few pictures. Even Francis joined in on the fun...

 

"I did it!!"

Isobel has been surprising us the last few weeks with all the things she can do by herself! She can get most of her outside cloths on (coat, boots,hats and mittens), she loves to set the table and turn the lights on and off. She's even been diaper free for a week and has done amazing! It's pretty sweet and very exciting, I just love it when kids find their independence ( i reserve the right to change my mind about independence at any time). I guess it's important to remember when they are SCREAMING their heads off saying "I DO IT" that we have to let them, that is the long term plan anyway :)

"i put my boot on...I ready to go!"

Working on a puzzle with Fifi

Space, Habitats and Construction

"a drill drilling into the ground for oil"

These days Wesley has three things on the brain; Space, habitats and of course construction. It often surprises us how he can remember the smallest detail, and recall facts from books we read days, weeks or even months ago. There is no doubt he LOVES anything to do with science and math. He was even trying to figure out why the hockey ball hit the wall and bounced off into the other direction in the basement today :)  He is also really into drawing and making maps and 'plans' right now. If you glance at them it's tough to make head or tail of them, but if you ask him to tell you about them they are pretty amazing (well i am his mom so i think most of what he does is amazing)...here's a few i wanted to share...


"a rocket"

 

 

"a machine that takes pictures of planets"

" My brain and my heart are attached to my spinal cord" Spinal cord is the piece of yarn :)

love day

 

Valentines week was a busy one for us this year. Ian was in Washington so i was busy with double duty. We had a valentines party at our house again this year, on the Monday. It was great fun with lots of snacks (black bean brownies and pineapple lollipops were the favourites) and art ( glue, hearts, scissors and some cute macaroni bracelets). We collected donations for Sandy Pines Wildlife Centre and we're hopeing to get out to drop it off next weekend. Then on Thursday Wesley had a valentines party at school and was very excited to show Isobel and i all his cards and shared all his treats with us :)

 

I opted for a Healthful valentines this year and thought it would be harder that it turned out to be. I found lots of cute ideas online for heart shaped fruit treats and heart shaped pizza and grilled cheese. I got a new Play dough ice cream shop kit for a treat, you would have thought it was real ice cream they were so excited! And in the end they always get a few treats from other people, so i guess it all evens out ;)

 

This is an amazing blog for anyone who's interested...i think it's my favourite food blog ever! I got most of my valentines ideas on it, thanks to my friend Laureen for recommending it!
Super Healthy Kids

Airports, markers and skates

 

February is rolling by, and we've been busy with much of the same. Wesley is building as always, with anything he can get his hands on. He's been enjoying a box of multi-coloured wooden block that auntie Jenn let us borrow. He's also been making lots of 'machines" out of Lego and made a very interesting looking 'convayer belt' but i didn't get a chance to get a photo before Isobel attacked it (not a pretty sight or sound).

"Airport"

Isobel has been busy reading lot's of books. She would listen to stories all day, as long as she gets to hold the book :) Also started doing a little more art. Until recently she has had very little attention span for anything other then glue (no actually gluing anything, just watching it drip!) But has now been painting for longer periods and has become quite artistic with the markers, especially on her hands and arms.

 



 

 

We've also discovered our very own back yard rink (well sort of ours). The ditch right behind our back fence has been frozen for the last few weeks, and we've been clearing it and skating on it. Wesley has come a long way in just a few short weeks and can skate on his own for short distances. Isobel is excited as well shuffling along with her double blades on her boots and the LOVE to pass the puck to each other!