Biker guys are cool.

Friday was Colin's preschool's trike-a-thon. The school holds this event every year to raise money for things they need in the classroom. The kids bring their bikes or trikes to school and pedal as many laps as they can around the parking lot, and unsuspecting grandparents pledge $1.00 per lap and end up paying a fortune. Good times!

Colin was very excited for this year's trike-a-thon. We practiced riding his bike at the park the night before, so he was ready to go Friday morning.

He was waiting at the starting line wearing his determined look.


Then...he was off!


Look at that look of concentration. He inherited that tongue thing from Gary.


After a few laps he decided he needed a little lemonade break.


Lemonade makes Colin happy.


Avery thought she needed in on the action. She did have her own preschool shirt, after all. (One of the teachers last year made her a tie-dye onesie to match the shirts the preschoolers wear for their special functions. I tried to squeeze her into that onesie this year, but it wasn't happening. So I cut the bottom off of the onesie and made it a shirt. It kept riding up, though, so it ended up looking like a crop top. Nice!)


After his lemonade break Colin was back in the action. This time instead of sticking out his tongue he decided to go with the "suck-in-your-cheeks" technique.


Hi, Colin! Pedal, pedal, pedal!


He ended up completing 17 laps. That's a full 13 laps more than last year! (Last year he cared more about the lemonade than the bike riding. It's a good thing for the preschool I didn't pledge per lap last year.)

The very best part of the trike-a-thon, by far, was this:


He was so proud. He now has his very own medal. There were big smiles all around.

Riley was quick to remind him when he got home that the medal wasn't real. Thanks, Riley.

That's a brother for you.

Cupcake crisis over, and an apology.

Today is what we in the cake business call a "bad day". (Well, actually there's no "we". Or maybe there is...but if there is, no one has ever asked me to be a part of the "we". Nevermind.) The mistake I made today was underestimating the amount of time involved in these Mickey Mouse cupcakes. I had devised a plan in my head as to how to accomplish these cupcakes, but when it came to execute, it didn't work. My initial plan was to melt chocolate chips, pipe them into the shape of Mickey's ears and stick them into the cupcakes. Initially it seemed as if would work, but because of this stinkin' 85 degree Indian summer we're having (I actually like this weather, I was just a little bitter, sorry) the chocolate circles began softening. Darn. On to Plan B.

So I figured I'd have Gary run to the store and pick up some of those plain chocolate wafers. Apparently, some of my food needs have been uncommon lately (see previous manicotti incident), because the store does not carry plain chocolate wafers. I was flabbergasted. No chocolate wafers? The horror! (Which leads me to the "apology" portion of this post. Yesterday, it's possible that I might have incinuated that I was slightly irritated with Gary for not finding the chocolate wafers at the store. I may have implied that I thought Gary was irresponsible in his inability to find the aforementioned wafers. So now, I need to extend to Gary my utmost, deepest apology for everything I might have been thinking about him yesterday. Sorry GP. You're the best!)

Glad that's off my chest!

So, to make a long story a little less long, I ended up buying Oreos, scraping off the creme (and I did not eat a single one of those little scraped-off creme patties, I'll have you know), and affixing a lollipop stick to the Oreo with melting chocolate. I then stuck the lollipop stick/Oreo into the cupcake. I think they turned out pretty good, and the customer was happy with them, but I don't think I'll be tackling any Mickey cupcakes anytime soon.


Mickey and I are taking a break.



(I appreciate all of your suggestions! Is it possible I can get you all on speed dial for the next crisis? That'd be great, thanks.)

Cupcake Crisis

I did not have time to post yesterday (Friday). (Technically it still feels like Friday to me since I haven't been to bed yet and it's 1:23 in the morning.) I am in the midst of a cupcake crisis. I'm frustrated. I have 36 Mickey Mouse cupcakes "due" tomorrow morning , and they are sitting on my dining room table - earless. Mickey with no ears. Not good. The plan I'd had in my head all week of how to give Mickey his ears didn't work. I sent Gary to the grocery store at 10:30 this evening to buy chocolate wafers, but he couldn't find them. Neither could the guy that works at the store that was helping him. I assured him they sell chocolate wafers, but he still came back waferless. Argh.

So I've been wracking my brain, and wracking Gary's brain, for a solution to my earless Mickey cupcakes. I think I hatched a plan to fix Mickey's ears. It's going to involve me getting up early to get to the store, which isn't sounding very good right about now considering it's 1:27 in the morning.

So tomorrow morning when I'm at the grocery store bright and early I think I'll take a stroll through the cookie aisle, just to see if there are any wafers. What do you think...think I'll find chocolate wafers?

Cupcake crisis to be continued....

Tag - I'm it.

I was "tagged" by Liz at Mainly a Midwife and by MamaLovelock and need to tell you 7 random things about myself. Here goes:

1. I do not have, and never have had, a passport. That needs to change.

2. I have been to Tijuana, though. Jealous, anyone?

3. I've never had a speeding ticket (or any kind of ticket).

4. I hate, despise, abhor olives of every kind. Blech, blech, blech.

5. When "The Dukes of Hazzard" TV show came out in the '80's I was in love with John Schneider who played Bo Duke and I wrote a letter to him at CBS asking him to marry me. I found out my mom never mailed that letter and I was crushed. I've never forgiven her. (OK, maybe I have. But who knows what could have been....)

6. When I was in high school a friend convinced me that he was color blind for the entire year. I would ask him how he picked out his clothes in the morning, how he matched his socks, etc. I felt so sorry for him. He finally let me in on his little joke at the end of the year. One of my best friends is now married to him. (See how scarred you left me, Geoff?)

7. I met Gary at a (don't judge me) Hank Williams Jr. concert. I didn't even know who Hank Williams Jr. was and I just went because this other guy I liked was going to be there. I was 16. Gary was 19.

8. If Avery, Colin, or Riley ever bring home a 19 year old when they're 16, I'll kill them.

That's eight things, sorry.

OK, I tag:

3 Bay B Chicks
Girl in Green
Baby Tunnel Exodus
Mom is in the Fishbowl

Cookies. Take Two.

After having to abort the cookie mission yesterday,
today we tried again and were successful.
Riley was home sick today, so I had two helpers in the kitchen.
This recipe is pretty large so there are a lot of ingredients to help dump. They like to dump ingredients.


There is A LOT of butter in these cookies.
Three sticks.
If that scares you off, I totally understand.


This is the best part: adding the pumpkin.
Here's where they get all yummy and fall-like.
Notice my helper there on the edge of the photo.


This is the boys' favorite part - adding the chocolate chips.
No brainer.


The Silpat is awesome.  Nothing sticks to it.
I only have one so I can't bake all the cookies on it, but I really like it.
It definitely bakes them evenly and they slide right off the mat.


And then the final product.
Yummy with milk.
Yummy without milk.
Just yummy.


Here's the recipe, if you're interested.
They are good Take To Your Neighbors cookies,
because they make A LOT.
So take some to your neighbors! They'll thank you for it.
Pumpkin Cookies
4 cups unsifted flour
2 cups oatmeal
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
3 sticks butter
2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup regular sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 can 15 oz. solid packed pumpkin
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
-Combine flour, oats, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Put aside.
-Cream butter until fluffy and gradually add sugars and beat until fluffy.
-Add egg and vanilla and mix well.
-Add alternating spoonfuls of dry ingredients and pumpking, mixing well after each.
-Stir in chocolate chips.
-Put cookies on lightly greased cookie sheet.
-Bake 15 minutes.

The cookies that weren't.

My plan for the day was to make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. I get the urge around this time every year to make these cookies because they really epitomize fall to me. It's a tradition. I got the recipe from my mom...I think she might have got it from the back of a can of Libby pumpkin puree at some point. Everybody loves these cookies, and the recipe makes a TON. They're so good.

So this afternoon when Colin and Avery were sleeping and the house was quiet, I got my recipe out, gathered the ingredients and was ready to go. Then the phone rang and it was Riley calling from school. He had a tummy ache and a fever. So I called my neighbor (after running around like a crazy woman to tidy up the house and throw things into my bedroom so the living room and kitchen looked presentable) and asked her to come sit with the kids while I ran to the school. (By the way, I have absolutely NO idea how that bag of Guittard chocolate chips got opened in the picture. None at all. They must have come that way from the store. I'm appalled! I've got a good mind to complain to the store management about that....)

The rest of the afternoon was spent on Keep Riley Happy duty. He tends to get weepy when he's sick, so I was doing my best to keep him happy the remainder of the day. Let's just say there was a lot of cuddling and snacking involved.

So I did not achieve my goal. It was a cookie-less day. Tomorrow, though, there will be cookies. Oh, yes...there will be cookies.

Retail Therapy

I had the rare opportunity today to go shopping alone. I really needed a day out by myself. I was at that point with the boys where we needed some quality time...away from each other. Gary has been working a lot of long hours lately, and I've kind of felt like a single parent. And he needed some quality time with the kids. It was fantastic. Today was one of those days where I could have spent $500. Easily. And quickly. Do you have days like that? You find 18 things you want to buy? That's how it works for me. Either I'm desperately looking for something to buy and I find nothing, or I'm just casually browsing and I find enough to replace my entire wardrobe. I did buy a shirt and some pants, so it was a success.

I realized something else today while I was in the dressing room. I was trying on jeans that use European sizing. What I realized is that I really LOVE European sizing (you know, sizes 25, 26, 27, and on up from there). I love it because I really have no idea what size the number translates into in American sizing. With "normal" sizes it's painfully clear to me when my regular size is not fitting. But with European sizing, if one size doesn't fit, it doesn't really hurt too much to go up to the next size because I have no idea what it is! So much less pressure. It got me thinking that I might need to convert my bathroom scale to a metric version. Because I'll really have no clue what those numbers mean and all will be bliss. I think I might be on to something.

------------------------------------

On another note, Gary has been working on his resume. He's putting his name into the pot for consideration for another position at work. It amuses me when he asks me to proofread his work. Primarily because I often have ABSOLUTELY NO CLUE what 90% of his resume says. Take this sentence, for instance: "Using Mojo added spline based deformation capable of key-frame animation and fizt simulation." HUH??? He swears this sentence makes sense. Here's another: "Added tri-cubic interpolation of volume samples in shading DSO." Mmm-kay. I am pretty sure I've never used the word 'interpolation' in my entire life.

I was just happy that I found a few places in that resume where he needed commas. It's nice to be needed.

Share and share alike.

See this happy girl? So cheery and smiley.

Today? Not so happy. She's sick with a fever. Nothing major, just enough to make her feel crummy. And enough to wake up at 4:30 this morning and want to stay awake and cry for awhile. Poor girl. She's back asleep now, and I'm hoping it's some 12 hour bug and she'll wake up perfectly fine and cheery.

I'm not holding my breath.

It is a weekend, after all. Don't these things always happen on weekends? It seems like if my children are going to come down with a fever/ear infection/stomach bug it is ALWAYS going to manifest on a Friday when it's pretty much too late to get them to the pediatrician. I'm convinced there's some sort of after-hour clinic conspiracy going on, but I haven't got all the details figured out yet. I'll keep you posted.

You want to know the best part of Avery's fever, though? She had a playdate yesterday. Our little two year old neighbor girl came over to play for a couple of hours. Nice, huh? So now I get to tell her mommy that Avery came down with fever after she left. She's going to love me.

How ironic that we were working on "sharing" when the girls were playing together yesterday.

Is it ever too late to say thank you?

It's been almost a month since Colin's birthday party and I still don't have his thank-you notes mailed. Or written. What does Miss Manners say about the whole thank-you card time line thing? I seem to remember for our wedding that the thank you's needed to be sent within a year, which seemed ridiculous to me. Who sends thank you's a full year after the event? After Gary and I were married I had the thank you's mailed probably within two weeks. I was so on-the-ball. So with-it. So childless.

When writing thank you notes I always debate with myself whether to have my kids write out the entire content of the thank you note, or just have them sign their name. At this point I've concluded that Riley writes the entire note and Colin just his name. I used to be really good and include a picture of the guest and birthday boy in each thank you. Wait...why did I stop doing that? Oh yea, I remember...I had two children and that was the end of that phenomenon.


So today Colin's project was writing his name on the thank you cards. Since he really enjoys writing his name he was happy to oblige me. Now I can make Miss Manners proud and get these out in a timely manner.

Definitely by January. I promise.

Mummy needs a t-shirt.

Have you ever noticed that there are some moms that go to pick-up and drop-off their kids at school dressed like they're headed to a photo shoot? I'm not talking about the working moms, I don't begrudge them their cute skirts and make-up. I'm talking about the moms who stay at home - like me - and feel compelled to get all cute by 8:30 in the morning. They make the rest of us look pretty bad. True, there are some mornings that I have it together enough to get in a shower and look half-way presentable. But there are probably more mornings when I'm wearing my favorite gray hat to cover up the mess that is my hair.

Most days, even after a shower, I'm a t-shirt and jeans kind of girl. That's the most comfortable for me. My friend introduced me to this fun t-shirt company: www.darlingmummy.com. They have some of the most fun shirts I've seen. I ordered this shirt & it's pretty much my uniform on my cake baking day:

I also love the "Don't Mess With Mommy" tee. I might need one of those too.

Hoofin' it.

Four years ago, when we were buying our house, one of the things I was excited about was its proximity to the elementary school. I was excited about the prospect of walking the kids to school. I had dreams of us all trotting happily down the sidewalk, stopping to smell flowers and look at bugs along the way.

Now we're in year two at the elementary school and we do walk Riley to school a lot of the time. Usually we're not 'trotting happily' but more like 'hustling hurriedly'. And instead of smelling flowers the boys are running ahead of me and finding rocks, dirt clods, and similar fascinating things. But I really do enjoy walking with them to school. And so do they.

They like to "talk about exercise" when we're walking to school. Specifically, Colin wants to talk about what exercises make your "heart beep faster". He likes to talk about his heart beeping.

The walk to school doesn't get my heart "beeping" much faster, because it's a nice downhill walk. Coming home, however, is another story! It's a pretty good hill to climb, and by that time my beeper is working nicely. Also by the time we're walking home Avery has been in the stroller for a good 30 minutes and she's ready to get OUT. NOW. So on the way home she gets out to walk. And it takes us f-o-r-e-v-e-r to get home. Because she does take time to smell the flowers. (And the rocks. And the mailboxes. And the sidewalk.)

Colin talks to me about his heart beeping, and Avery crouches down to stick her fingers in the dirt in someone's front yard.

It gets my day started right.

A Piggy Party

This evening the kids, Gary, and I attended our friends' 2nd Annual Pig Roast. We had a blast. There were good friends (23 years strong), good food (roast pig = yum) and good fun. (A bouncy house. Need I say more?)

The talk of the party, however, was the balloon guy. My friend hired a balloon guy (is that the preferred name?) to be at the party for an hour to make balloon creations for the kiddos. The guy was so good I think he ended up being there three times that long. The guy was amazing! Kids were walking around with huge lions, pigs, palm trees, butterfly wings, and the cutest caterpillar you've ever seen. The boys each got a different car. Very cool. (This picture definitely doesn't do it justice.)

It was great spending time with old friends. (Wait. Just to clarify: WE'RE not old, we're just old friends. Just wanted that to be clear. Very clear.) I've known these girls since we were in 5th grade. We were friends as kids, silly teenagers, college girls, twentysomethings, and now mommies. Each of the three of us had a daughter last year, and it was so fun to watch our little girls interacting with one another. They are clearly the next generation of girlfriends.

Thanks, Fran and Geoff. We all had a blast. We're looking forward to the 3rd Annual Pig Roast already.

I'm a Barbie snob.

There. I said it! I feel better.

It's been a really long time since I played with a Barbie. When I was little, Barbie's were my all-time favorite things to play with. I had several Barbie's, plus a Barbie house, Barbie corvette (no self-respecting Barbie went anywhere without her corvette), and a Barbie McDonald's. It even had little mini hamburgers and fries. (Like this one.) (You have no idea how hard it is for me not to bid on this.) Of course, Barbie's were definitely different then. They definitely wore more clothes. I don't think any of my Barbie's ever wore half-shirts. Or had pink hair.

I had to make a Barbie cake today for a little girl's birthday party. I bought a "doll pick" a week ago to use in the cake. Have you seen these? It's basically the torso of a wanna-be-Barbie doll where, instead of legs, there's a sharp pick. It's a little disturbing, actually. (Riley was quite fascinated with it, however. I'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact that she wasn't wearing any clothing on that torso.)

After looking at this Barbie sitting on my countertop for several days I decided she wasn't all that cute. She's kind of like Barbie's ugly friend. (That's so bad. I'm sorry. I'm sure she has a great personality.)
I decided that I should break down and buy an actual Barbie to jam into this cake. So today the kids and I headed to Target and I bought a Barbie. I was shocked and appalled to discover that there are Barbie's out there that cost $39.99. Are you kidding? The $39.99 Barbie probably wouldn't want to be caught dead in that vintage Corvette I had.

So I got Barbie home, took off her shimmery pink dress, assembled the cake, and discovered, alas, that cute Barbie is too tall for the cake. So...I was forced to use legless Barbie. I hope the birthday girl is not too traumatized.


So now the dilemma. What to do with the cute Barbie with the shimmery pink dress and crown and necklace and high heels?
I love her accessories.

I guess I probably should take her back to Target. I should get my $9.99 back. I definitely shouldn't show her to Avery tomorrow because Avery is much too young for Barbie's. I surely shouldn't show Avery her pretty pink (choking hazard) shoes and necklace.

That's right. I shouldn't do any of those things.

I'll keep telling myself that, OK?

Manicotti? You've GOT to be kidding.

I went to Safeway today to get a few groceries (it seems like I find myself at the store almost daily) because I was making dinner tonight for our neighbors who had a baby last week. I have a really yummy manicotti recipe and so just about any time I make dinner for someone I make manicotti. Everyone usually likes it and it's about as easy as it gets. So I was at Safeway buying ingredients for the manicotti. I was trying to be quick, because Avery and I had just left the pediatrician's office for her 15 month check up and she had a TB test, a hemoglobin finger prick, a flu shot, a MMR vaccine, and the chicken pox vaccine. Needless to say, she wasn't her usual chipper self. I was scanning the pasta aisle for manicotti and found none. It's usually on the top shelf with the lasagna, but today there was not a single box of manicotti noodles in the store. Nor was there an empty spot on a shelf where manicotti noodles would normally be. So I settled for a box of jumbo shells instead and headed to the check out. I happened to mention to the manager who was ringing me up that they didn't have any manicotti noodles. He apologized, and told me they no longer carry manicotti noodles because they "fell out of favor recently."

Huh? Wha..? Fell out of favor with who?

Apparently, manicotti noodles are no longer in fashion this year. They are, like, so last season.

..................

So after the faux-pas of almost using an out of style pasta, I carried on and prepared dinner for the neighbors using the uber-fashionable stuffed shell pasta. Colin was helping me at this point. He actually made the pumpkin muffins we brought to the neighbors, and loved it. He's quite the pro at stirring, let me tell you.

I was getting the salad together and got out my salad spinner (which is definitely one of those kitchen tools that is totally unnecessary to own but it takes up space in my cabinets nonetheless.) Colin confiscated that spinner as soon as it was out of the cupboard. Trust me when I tell you that this is not what I had in mind for the salad spinner when I bought it.
It is currently being used more to spin Legos than salad greens.
Go figure.

Hopefully the neighbors like the manicotti (and salad and strawberries and garlic bread and pumpkin muffins). I'm just thankful Safeway saved me from serving passe pasta. I mean, can you imagine how the neighbors would have talked?

He's a mover and a shaker.

Riley likes to move. He's in constant motion. I guess you could say he's the stereotypical boy who never sits still. Some might call him antsy. Even when he's in bed and trying to fall asleep, he's moving, somehow, right up until the moment he finally crashes.

Sometimes I just want him to sit and cuddle with me, but he'll only last a few minutes before he's up and running again, off on to the next adventure.

At least we have a backyard where he can run off - or swing off, as the case may be - some of that energy.

And sometimes he will stand still long enough for me to snap a cute picture.

Then he's off again.

Goodbye Saturdays - see you in November...

Saturday was the opening day of soccer season. As is tradition around here, there was a parade to officially welcome and kick-off the season. We live in a fairly small-ish town (especially for California standards) and part of what I like about where we live are all of the fun family-friendly activities available here. It's very old-fashioned and traditional, which I love.

Usually.

The soccer parade is fun for the kids: they get to walk down our main street with their teams, holding their team banner and waving to the people watching from the sidewalk. It is fun, but it begins SO EARLY in the morning. I sound like such a whiner here, but it's hard to drag yourself out of bed on a Saturday morning and have the entire family ready to shine by 7:30 in the morning. Even though we didn't have much time to spare we had to make a stop at Starbucks to get fuel for the morning. I'm sure I don't have to tell you that the place was packed with parents with kids in soccer uniforms. I got my soy latte and Gary his Pumpkin Spice latte. (Gary is not usually a coffee drinker, but he makes an exception in the fall when Starbucks has their Pumpkin Space Lattes. He once asked a barista in June if they were serving those yet. I think she might have laughed at him.) The boys are big fans of the Horizon vanilla milks, so they're always thrilled any time we make it to Starbucks. I think we were all better at that point.

Once we finally made it to the parade we all had a good time.

Riley enjoyed walking with his team and waving to a cute old couple who was watching in their wheelchairs.

Colin and Avery got in on the action.

The parade ends at a baseball field and everyone gathers in the stands. All of the teams are announced and the kids and coaches run to their place in the outfield.
I thought the coach in red was cute.

The National Anthem is sung, a prayer is said to bless the season, and then we're off! Thus begins another soccer season.

Our Saturday's officially do not belong to us until November.

Kids these days

It's funny to me that whenever I take a picture of the kids they always want to look at the display on the camera to see their picture. When we were growing up you were LUCKY if you had a polaroid camera and could see the picture develop in 20 seconds or so. I always wanted a polaroid camera. But most of the time you had to go down to the drug store and drop your film off and wait a few days to have it developed. And if everyone had their eyes closed in your pictures you wouldn't know it until the pictures were developed and it was too late and the moment was over and, well, too bad.

It's funny that my kids will probably never use a film camera in their lives.

Funny, isn't it, that they will probably never own a record player, or even a tape player. Who knows, they might never even buy a CD. I can't even remember the last time I bought a CD. I guess before iTunes was invented. (I love you, Steve Jobs.)

Funny, too, that by the time Avery's a teenager she'll probably look back at this picture and say, "Can you believe we were listening to iPods back then? How archaic!"


I can't believe I'll never be able to share the beauty of a mix tape with my kids.

Tragedy.

I need a cake break.

It's 12:09 am and I just finished the last of three cakes for this weekend. Please remind me not to try and do three cakes in one weekend again. It's hard on me - and my kitchen. Thankfully the kids are spending the night at my parents' house tonight. Did I hear someone say "sleeping in tomorrow morning"?

So here are the lego cake, the train cake (definitely my LEAST favorite of the weekend) and a Spongebob cake that I was pretty happy with.

Hooray! I'm finished with cakes until...next weekend.

Wildlife invasion

OK, so "wildlife" invasion may be stretching it a little bit. Or a lot. But we did have a flurry of creature activity here today.

The first incident occurred at approximately 1200 hours as I was sitting down to eat lunch at the kitchen table. Avery was watching Colin throw himself on the couch and I was inhaling my lunch before it was time to leave the house to go pick up Riley from school at 12:30. As I was eating my leftovers, I heard - I swear - what sounded like a 10 year old running on the roof. We frequently hear squirrels running on the roof so I'm used to that, but this was different. There's NO way a squirrel could have made such racket. I went outside and saw a squirrel in the tree shaking like a leaf. (This is him in happier times.) Was he frightened, perhaps?
I told Riley and Colin about it later in the afternoon and Riley (with a straight face) offered that it could have been a hippo on the roof. By the look on that squirrel's face it could have been chased by a hippo, I'm telling you.

Incident number two was a little more disturbing for me. I went outside to put some garbage in the trash can and almost stepped on a HUGE moth. He was just laying there on the sidewalk peacefully, yes, but I was a little freaked out. I've had a fear of moths since watching Silence of the Lambs way back when. They're just creepy, don't you think?

~Shudder~

The final incident was the most exciting. (Brace yourself Mom and Dad.) For the last couple of years my parents have hosted a mass all-you-can-eat buffet for birds in their backyard. They have dozens and dozens of these little yellow birds that come and feed from a hanging sack of thistle seed. It's a lot of fun to watch these little guys hang onto this sack and gorge themselves. My parents assured me if I put up a sack in my backyard that the birds would find it. It was totally a "If you build it, they will come" moment. I believed. So back in March I bought this little bag and Gary hung it from the tree in our backyard.

Nothing.

Not a single yellow bird.

Our backyard was a birdie ghost town.

I became disillusioned.

And disenchanted.

Until today!!!!

Do you see?
I'm sorry I doubted you, Mom and Dad. I mean, it did take six months, but one little lonely bird found it today. Success!

So I guess it wasn't really an invasion, per se. But in my exciting life moths, yellow birds - and especially hippos - are sometimes highlights.

*Deep sigh*