Birthdays, Birds, and a Dog

More of the same.

Owen and Camille both celebrated their birthdays. Owen wanted a car cake, and I produced a pretty decent one. He was excited to move into a booster seat until the doctor dashed his hopes by telling him he won't hit the weight guideline until he is 6.

Camille had her first friend party and was super super excited about it. I suggested a no present party, but that idea caused tears, so we had a normal party with presents. I chose the theme and went with ice cream.  It was 97 degrees and humid, so the outdoor portions of the party were pretty short. One game we played was the candy bar game where everyone rolls dice, and when you get doubles, you get to take a candy bar from the middle or take someone else's candy bar that they already chose. Note to everyone: 5-7 is too young for that game. The scavenger hunt was a big hit, as was the thimble game/baptism.

Here are some pictures of Maple. She's gotten pretty big already. She was only a cute little puppy for a week or two. Or maybe she was actually older than they guessed when we got her. She has almost doubled her weight in the month we've had her. Her breed is still a guess.

Time for a bird identification quiz. I'll give you a hint: they are all sparrows except the first.

I've been using an app called Merlin to identify birds I don't know. I was super excited when the sparrows came through in migration. Also yesterday when I was out running, I saw not one, but two new birds, both of which were supposedly somewhat common here, a flock of cedar waxwings, and a northern flicker. This has really been a cool hobby.