The Beach (again)

Scott's Beach.  80 degrees.  Friends in tow.  What could be better?
 

The "Alligator" Snapping Turtles

I came home last Saturday morning to find not one, but two of these snappers in my front flower beds, holes dug, with their back ends happily positioned.  My hypothesis was that they were laying eggs...

 So, we set our recycling bin on its side in front of them, one at a time and used our garden hoe and shovel to scoot them in.  They were NOT happy.  They call them snappers for a good reason. I heard that these big snappers can take a finger off.  Not sure if that is true, but I don't want to find out!

And... this is what we found!  Yep.  There are 6 in this picture, but that hole went DEEP!  There were at least 15-20 eggs, per hole.

 We reloacated the mommas and their eggs to the other end of the neighborhood where there are no houses.

Isn't she brave?  It just an egg with yoke inside at this point, but still, something was scary about holding the eggs!

 

Who does this dog think he is?

Yep, head on Adam's pillow and all.

Wildlife

There's not much of an end to the wildlife we see in our own backyard here.  It's one thing that I will miss desperately if we ever move to a more crowded area again.  

Robins eggs in our gutter:

Swans on our lake (they had babies that we like to get closer looks at with our canoe.)

Snapping alligator turtles (eek!)

Blanding's turtles that crawl into our garage:

Swans and geese cohabitating:

Frogs and toads that always hop onto our porch when it thunders:

More frogs:

Baby turtles:

Sandhill cranes? Egrets?

Grasshoppers on our cars:

And what would the Michigan country be without some whitetail deer?

Our New Swing Set

Our good friends gave us their old swing set (because someone gave them their old one) and it has been SO fun having one of these babies right in our backyard!  

Now, when we finally transported the beast to our house, I can't lie, I was a little discouraged at its condition.  It was gray.  And green.  But, I remembered seeing my grandpa's power washer in action once and I had hope.  I am so glad I took these pictures while I was power washing it!  Look at the difference!  So glad we didn't give up on it!

Thanks so much Mike and Katie!  And Scott for letting us use your power washer!!!

Easter 2012

Dying Easter eggs!  (I'm mean and make them take their shirts off!  I suppose one day they will be too old for that... hmm.  Guess I'll invest in some aprons?

We had our friends, the Pearsons and the Juarezs over for Easter dinner and an Easter egg hunt!  These kids were excited!

My dear friend, Kristin, who is going through Chemo, had a birthday, so we celebrated.  We tend to do that for birthdays. :)

An Early April Hike

Spring Break: Laying the Slate

Forget Florida, the Carribean or Disney World.  This is how we roll when we are on break.

The tile in the basement has come a long way since we started it in early April.  Stay tuned for more pics of the process, and the finished product, of course!

Emotions

I suppose a two year-old feels a lot of emotions while hanging from a pull-up bar, even with daddy standing right there...

 

Kira's 5th Birthday

Kira received a package from Mimi and Papa Franson to kick off her birthday season this year.  She loves her new Frog and Toad and Little Bear books!  

She was quite excited to go to school the morning of her birthday!  Here she is about ready to leave:

She got to go on a special "date" with my mom after school was over.  They ate and went to the mall together.  This girl loves to buy clothes.  Well, she loves when other people buy her clothes.  And she's good at getting my mom to buy them for her too.  

Adam and I bought her a new bike this year for her birthday!  (She really needed one.)  She was very surprised and extremely excited to ride it.

This year she wanted a pirate-themed birthday party with her little friends.  It was SO fun!  Each kid got bandannas (quickly cut out of fabric from my fabric bins) and eye patches (very easily made) to wear for the party.  They decorated wooden treasure boxes and watched some of Kira's favorite show on TV: Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  

I made her this pirate cake: