Cardinals in our Backyard

At first we could hear its song and we could see it in our neighbour's tree. Then it came in closer.

And closer still.

And then he called the Mrs. over.

When you live in a 12-year old subdivision and see a pair of cardinals it is noteworthy.  About 5 years ago we spotted our first cardinal, just in for a brief visit.  This pair, however, have been around all day.  I guess our trees are finally big enough for a pair of cardinals to move in and call it home.

Does she look like she's gathering dried grass to make a nest?

  Is she looking a little plump to you?  Cause we're hoping they'll call this home.

Sweet 16 Card

Two years ago this month, when our daughter Kate turned 16, she was an exchange student living in France.  Since she was away from home, I wanted to do something to make her birthday special, but it had to be small enough to be mailed and sweet enough to make Kate smile.

I made her a Sweet 16 birthday card - yes plenty of candy was consumed in the making of this card.  I had family and friends from school and youth group sign the inside of it.
 

I also bought 16 little gifts and wrapped them up, numbering them 1-16, so she had some fun things to open.  I wrapped up some bracelets from our favourite store, Ten Thousand Villages, some gum, TicTacs, a scarf, and other little treats.
 

It wasn't the same as having her at home, but she loved the card and little presents and we did celebrate when she got home.
 

This year she is turning 18 - my how time flies!

Linked to The Celebration Inspiration Party at Under the Table and Dreaming,
Show and Share Day at Just a Girl

Easter Weekend

We had a very quiet Easter weekend.  

Lots of time to enjoy the lovely warm spring weather,

watch our seedlings grow,

and eat lots of these.

Did the Easter bunny visit anyone else?

Easter Eggs

We have quite a collection of pysanky, or Ukranian Easter eggs, that we have made over the years.  

  I love them! 

I love the colours, the patterns, and the fact that they don't look terrible given that they are actually pretty difficult to make.

     (full disclosure - the light blue egg on the right is a painted wooden egg, not a pysanky)

May your heart and home be blessed this Easter.

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UPDATE:  check here for a Ukrainian Easter egg photo-shoot.

Linked to Inspired by: Easter at The Inspired Room
I'm Lovin' It Fridays at Tidy Mom
Strut Your Stuff - Easter and Spring at Somewhat Simple
Easter Mantel + Link Party at Centsational Girl

My Moose

Last week I posted a photo of a moose that walked across the still frozen lake in front of our cottage.  Unfortunately I did not get to see that moose as we arrived at the cottage after it had walked by.  I have seen moose about a half a dozen times in my life, though, so I decided to post a photo of one of my favourite sightings. 

 My husband convinced me I needed a closer photo of the moose, so here it is -

We saw this moose in Riding Mountain National Park, Manitoba in 2006.  I had taken Kate, her friend, and her cousin for a walk through the woods.  It was one of those still, peaceful mid-summer days with the sun shining and the air just the right temperature.  We walked along eating raspberries - a lot of raspberries.  Later that night at an evening program we discovered that we weren't supposed to eat the wild berries as they were for the wild animals - whoops!  We all looked a bit guilty but not too guilty since they had been really, really tasty.

As we were walking along the trail we looked down into a swamp and there stood a huge male moose.  We just stood and watched him eat.  I have to say that seemed like the perfect moose spot, don't you think? Lots of trees and rushes and grass.  Just where you would expect to see a moose, and we did!

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Thank you to Sarah at All Our Fingers in the Pie for this lovely blog award.  If you want to see a true foodie in action you should head over to her blog.  The unfailingly kind comments and helpful supportive friends I have met have been among my biggest pleasures in starting a blog.  So to all of you - I'm passing on this award.