Bird Watching

Well folks, we have an avid bird watcher in our family.  He has sharp eye sight, great attention to detail, has mastered matching the birds in our yard to those in his bird book, and he's three years old.

Our Mannchen LOVES birds.

With that in mind, and our winter theme, this week we have been learning more about birds and what they do during the winter.  Some change colors/feathers, other migrate south, and many of those around us are in greater need of food sources.  We have made suet cakes, cranberry rings, and popcorn heart bird feeders.  All are on display outside of our large dining room window and we enjoy watching our feathered friends enjoy their treats during our meal and craft times.  It's quite entertaining and I'm overjoyed that my little ones find nature (even the nature in our own backyard) so wildly fascinating!

Cranberry rings and the homemade suet cake in the feeder. The popcorn hearts weren't made when I took the pictures...oops.

Our daily rhythms are continuing to become more second nature and we all are benefiting from the ease found in that.

On the flip side, we have made a major change this week. Both kids are sharing a room again...at least for now. The heat pump that heats our downstairs has been faulty for awhile. Over the weekend it went out...for good. We moved Töchterchen's mattress onto the floor in Mannchen's room to make sure she wouldn't get too cold at night. They have been doing MUCH better than our first attempt at moving them into the same room last summer. I've found it made a huge difference once I removed every single possible source of light. When it's pitch black in the room, a lot of the excitement is gone. Are they perfect angels that settle right down and fall asleep as quickly as they do when in separate rooms? Heck no. But they aren't running around, screaming and laughing either. Progress is good.  We are giving it a solid week or two before we decide to move Töchterchen's entire bed upstairs.  If bedtime gets crazy again, it's back downstairs for the little miss.

Enjoying our ice lanterns over the weekend.

 

 Experimenting with Töchterchen's growing hair!  I love having a girl.

Today, while I was making lunch, things got quiet.  Very quiet.  And every mom knows quiet isn't always good.  I peeked around the corner, expecting the worst, but instead found my precious, sweet, lovable babies playing games together.  Here they are setting up the "Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel" game.  I had to snap a picture before the moment was gone - but thankfully it carried on for about 20 minutes, allowing me to pull lunch together in peace.  These precious children we were blessed with constantly amaze me.  They are so sweet, so imaginative, and so all around AWESOME!