Baby Birds In May

Early in May we saw that birds were creating a nest on top of our side garage lights. With all the choices of the trees in the yard, this seemed like an unlikely place, but the birds seemed happy with their new home.

Photo 140 of 365, taken May 13th:

As the nest grew in size, any slight breeze would blow some of the stray nesting materials, setting off our motion light at all hours of the night. Dave debated taking the nest down, but it was clear that the mama bird was being very protective of it, and we knew baby birds were on their way.

Mama bird sat hunkered down and all puffed up like this for several days in a row.

Photo 141 of 365, taken May 20th:

One day there were some sweet and noisy baby birds out there to greet us. It was neat to see, but it is also when the nest got way out of control. I'm not sure if it was an effort to keep everyone in the nest warm, but over the course of a week or so, the nest tripled in size. It appeared that the adult birds were dragging up every piece of garbage they could find, including paper and something that looked rather cloth-like. Our motion light was set off constantly {we would have just disabled it entirely, but many evenings I really appreciate it as I am walking from the driveway to the house}. After watching the nest grow to monumental size, one morning about half the nest fell on its own...and a second bird family moved in. Now about a month later, we have new baby birds chirping noisily as I type this up. We just might be stuck with that nest all summer.

Photo 142 of 365, taken May 20th:

Unrelated to the birds, Alyssa made a planter using a 2 liter bottle in science class. She says a tomato plant is going to grow.

Photo 143 of 365, also taken May 20th:

Grebes bakery had lots of pretty flag cookies on our last visit. The girls loved them, and continue to look forward to all of Alyssa's monthly orthodontist appointments because they know it means a cookie and donut treat from Grebes.

The Mosh Pit, Or in Other Words Photos 133-139

Clearly I {or at least my blogging} was no match for the end of the school year and transition to summer vacation. I have loved doing the 365 photos project for the year, but it has really made me feel forced into posting things at least somewhat chronologically, and my brain just doesn't work that way most days. More often than not I feel like my thoughts are flailing and jumping around like a mosh pit in my brain fighting their way to get some air at the top {this is not to say that I have actually been close enough to a mosh pit to experience this first hand, but I imagine that's what it's like, and it's definitely how I have felt realizing how long it has been since I last posted any new photos and considering where to begin.}

I am sticking with it though, because I have some crazy need to finish what I started, so the next several posts will be my best attempt to recover. Bring on the pictures!!

Photo 133 of 365, taken May 16th:

Emma's gym teacher selected some 4th and 5th graders to run in a track meet. Here is the 4th grade team, our school was the only one who brought 4th graders, the other schools only brought their 5th graders, so Emma was super excited she even had the chance to compete.
Photo 134 of 365, taken May 16th:

Emma did the 400m race and the long jump. Here she is exhausted after the 400m. She had never done anything like this before so I tried to give her a little advice about the lanes, explaining that because they are staggered it can be deceiving how far ahead of you someone is etc...I wasn't sure she knew what to expect, but little did I know what I was about to see. I also overheard her gym teacher give her some advice about not starting out too fast, and that was it ~ the race began.

As they rounded the first corner, Emma was either in last place or second to last. I knew her strategy was to save some gas in the tank for the end of the race, but I couldn't help wondering what she was doing. I knew she was faster than that. This continued throughout the straightaway and then without warning she just turned it on! One by one she overtook the rest of the runners {people we didn't know in the stands were counting down the runners as she passed them as soon as they realized the move she was making to take everyone down}. By the final straightaway she was by herself. At one point I saw Emma glance at someone who was passing her, and I was way far away in the stands, but I thought I saw an expression of frustration on her face. She stayed true to her plan though and didn't get distracted. I don't know how you teach a kid patience like that. She surely didn't get it from me! In the words of her gym teacher, Herr Arndt, "Smart race, Emma. Smart race."

Emma and her sweet friend Ava who did awesome in the 70m and the softball throw.

Emma won the standing long jump too, jumping 6 foot 3 inches. Long term, track is not going to be a sport she will be competitive in, she's just not tall enough, and for the purposes of her gymnastics endeavors we will not wish away her petite stature. But for today it sure was an awesome day at the track!!

The same evening as the track meet, Alyssa told me she needed an updated photo for the sidebar of the blog...
Photo 135 of 365, taken May 16th:

I still have a hard time believing she's a teenager, mostly because I am pretty sure I was just a teenager myself last week. We recently got the question that was bound to happen at some point: Are you sisters?

Photo 136 of 365, also taken May 16th:

Once again, Rebekah was too busy playing for me to take pictures.

She much preferred to examine the flowers and run around the yard than sit and pose.

That weekend Rebekah danced at Maifest in Germantown.
Photo 137 of 365, taken May 18th:

There's not a whole lot that is more German than necklaces made of pretzels and beer before noon. Eins, Zwei, Drei...Zuppa!


Photo 138 of 365, taken May 18th:

Rebekah had recently asked me why when Alyssa is in a play she gets flowers after her performances, but that she had never gotten flowers after a German Dance outing. We couldn't have her thinking that somehow her dance wasn't as special, so Alyssa picked out some flowers for her on our way to Maifest.

Photo 139 of 365, taken May 18th:

After Maifest we headed over to celebrate a baby shower for our friends, Tanya and Paul. Baby Christa was just born on June 20th and is just precious! Alyssa and Emma are pictured above with Christa's very proud big sister, Alyssa.