Hair, birds, and a new van

Sonyea had gymnastics Thursday evening. They also offered photos. They took them after class, so she’s pretty red faced with messy hair but we supported the gym in their fundraising effort. I’ll get that photo posted after I get it and scan it in before I hang it up on the wall. I tried to get Zia’s photo done the week before but she wouldn’t stop whining long enough to take the finger out of her mouth and smile nicely. So, I bribed her. That didn’t work. We then decided to do a sisters picture. I tried getting them psyched up to do it before hand. She wouldn’t have anything to do with it. She wouldn’t even put her leotard on. I guess there is worse things to fight over. I put Sonyea’s hair up in little buns. One on either side. It was super cute this morning when I took them out. Super curly!!

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Sonyea had been begging all day to go outside and play today. I really didn’t want to because I lost a lot of sleep last night with the thunderstorms. That’s three nights in a row of not enough sleep. I can’t begin to explain the headache! Since she was relatively good at helping me straighten up the living room, we took them to Otsiningo Park. What a great day to be outside!

She rode her bike for almost 2 miles. She’s pretty fast on that thing. It really sucks that we don’t have any side walks around here. The parking lot just isn’t very big. We are going to have to spend more time at the walking park up the road so she can get in some serious bike riding this summer. It was really the first time she got on her new bike and rode it. She did tip over once while trying to get to the bench at the playground. That’s my fault for suggesting she go off road. Oops!

While we were walking around the pond, we found a “mound” that I decided was a turtle and we had to go check it out. The mud wasn’t very nice to walk in but on approaching the “mound” it was indeed once a turtle but has long been dead. I got the girls all excited to see a dead turtle and the swarm of flies around it.

I spotted a long necked bird on the back side of the pond, I can’t even identify it. My wildlife photos are pretty crappy, I’ll warn you now.

I spotted this guy trying to have some lunch on the edge of the river! Again, no idea what kind of bird this is (if you have any idea, let me know, please! My bird books are upstairs in the girls’ room and they are sleeping). Zia was pretty ticked off that she couldn’t see it. She just wasn’t looking in the right direction and pointing did no good. Sonyea thought it was pretty cool and was pretty upset that I wouldn’t let her go down there for a closer look. Although it would have been a great idea to get better pictures, but I didn’t want to disturb this guy’s lunch. The poor frog was still alive and trying to escape. The bird was doing a decent job at trying to “drown” it but I’m not sure you can “drown” a frog!! It was fun to watch.

*again, sorry for the crappy photos.

The reward for great walking/bike riding was playing on the playground!!

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I am always so proud of my girls when I notice them notice things. We were waiting for the bus this morning and a small flock of Canada geese flew over where we were standing with the rest of the neighbors. I watched Sonyea shield her eyes from the sun and watch the birds fly over head while the other kids were totally oblivious that anything “cool” was flying so close to their heads. I just want my kids to notice wildlife, enjoy it, learn from it, find it cool and not take it for granted!

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I finally got a few photos of our new van. It really is what we needed around here! Now, we CAN take the bike to the park instead of expecting Sonyea to walk. The girls love it too.