New Residents at the House

As you all know we have raccoons that visit us. Sometimes they come regularly and sometimes they are ones we have never seen before. Every year we seem to get the same couple raising their young somewhere nearby. During the past couple of weeks we have had a new female visiting raising three babies. She is very friendly and each evening around dusk she comes to eat. At first the babies stayed up in the trees but now they are all coming to the bowls when she thinks it is safe. They are soooooooo cute.

Here is the last little one climbing down the tree for dinner. They look so funny climbing down head first. I didn't know they were such good climbers.

Finally we figured out where they are living. One of our trees on the north side of the house is perfect. About 20 feet up where the branches grow thickest they have found the perfect place to sleep the day away. I don't think that the mama gave birth up there but now that the babies are big enough to climb it is a safe place away from the coyotes during the day.

Budd's Birthday

Well as of the last minute Jim and I decided to take a trip up to San Jose to celebrate Jeff's birthday. We were surprised to find out it was a party for Micah too. What a great time. We had a picnic in the park with lots of Jeff and Wendy's friends. I got to visit with Kevin and Luanne and Wendy fixed a wonderful feast. Chicken, hamburgers and hot dogs with lots of salads, chips and good stuff to eat. We played volleyball, had a pinata and just plain lots of fun.




These are the cakes Wendy made for the party. Can you tell which one was for Micah? I was going to take a picture of Jeff eating his cake too but didn't think it was as much fun!




Micah was sooooooo tired after all the excitement of eating his cake. Grandpa makes such a good bed.


This was the boys opening their presents.



Here are the two birthday boys busy playing in a tree. What a great party!

Building Bird feeders

Caiden came to stay with us for a few days so I tried something new!
We decided to invite Rachael over to do a craft and make bird feeders!
What fun! Here we are ready to go!

We worked hard spreading each pine cone with peanut butter. Then we rolled it in a bowl of unshelled sunflower seeds.


I think in the end they both ended up just eating the peanut butter........ I think next time I try this craft they should be about 5 or 6 years old.

We hung our bird feeders up in the trees for the birds but none landed to eat it. Then we spied one acrobatic squirrel hanging upside down chowing down on one of the pine cones. The squirrels love them, I hung them lower so that they could reach them from the ground and they are now almost gone. Even the chipmunks steal some seeds here and there.

What a great day, friends and fun.