milestones...

In the past week, I celebrated with these 3 girls as they reached milestones. On the 25th, this little beauty celebrated her 9th month! Her mommy has onsie stickers for each month of her first year and it is so fun to go back and compare the photos from one month on! She was tired for this photo so no smiles which is so unusual because this little girl is known for her huge smiles. At 9 months old, Bailey loves to show off her "standing alone" skills and this week she learned to pull herself up alongside of furniture. She has decided she doesn't need to crawl because she can go wherever she wants by "butt scooting" across the floors so Grandma thinks she will skip crawling and go straight to walking. With warmer temps finally arriving this weekend, Bailey loved spending time outside. On Friday, Jeff & I drove up north to see Brooklyn on her 18th month milestone. We bought some mini cupcakes to celebrate with her and she was pretty thrilled with her special treat. Saturday brought near 70 degree temperatures (with 30+ inches of snow still on the ground) so Brooklyn enjoying playing outside with grandpa, grandma & mommy. I love the shot of her G-Pa pulling her in her wagon and she is smiling up at him while he is smiling back at her :) She walked "over" the snow to her backyard swing and called for her meme (grandma) to come put her in it and push her. I'm pretty sure her big smiles in the swing are from her love of swinging but she could be having a private laugh over grandma trying to walk over to her and sinking in deep snow. Later while her mommy and daddy got ready and left to attend a wedding, her grandpa taught her how to throw snowballs and she thought it was the best game ever. Grandma was thrilled to catch some "action" in air shots of the fun. Sunday was my daughter's milestone day when she celebrated her 30th birthday. For the special occasion I made Brooklyn a bib and t-shirt, the bib read "Guess who is 30 today" and when you lifted it up she had a t-shirt with a mommy birthday cake and numeral candles for 30. Her mommy loved them so that made Grandma smile. I'm so happy to have celebrated these milestones with my "original" princess and the two new grandbaby princesses! Brooklyn, Bailey & Emma also sported their April outfits in photos this weekend so of course I have to share that as well :)

another new garden bird...

I'm not sure but I think it is a Cooper's Hawk, maybe a juvenile. The only hawks I usually see around our yard are red tails and this guy is much smaller. He's been hanging around for 2 days and not too afraid of me and my camera. He's sitting in the little tree by the rock fountain in these photos.

the last week of winter...

We had snow again yesterday and last night, this view out my patio door shows the pine lady's branches drooping with heavy snow...
Today, the sun is shining and it is already melting bringing spring joy to my heart but even better is this forecast...

TODAY

Mostly
Sunny

High: 35 °F

TONIGHT

Partly
Cloudy

Low: 22 °F

WEDNESDAY

Rain/Snow
Likely

High: 40 °F

WEDNESDAY
NIGHT

Rain/Snow
Likely

Low: 23 °F

THURSDAY

Mostly
Sunny

High: 46 °F

THURSDAY
NIGHT

Partly
Cloudy

Low: 37 °F

FRIDAY

Mostly
Sunny

High: 62 °F

FRIDAY
NIGHT

Partly
Cloudy

Low: 39 °F

SATURDAY

Sunny

High: 67 °F

6o DEGREES IS COMING!! We haven't seen temps that reached 60 since last October! I'm betting Minnesotan's will all be out in short sleeved shirts and shorts this weekend. Seeing no more measurable snow in the forecast is such a mood brightener and seeing the sun glistening off the snow this morning is actually a beautiful sight. Yes, on April 23rd I think blooming tulips and blossoming trees would be a much prettier sight but with warmer temps finally in the forecast I know that will happen soon.

On Saturday, Jeff & I got the pond pump running in an effort to try to thaw out the 2 foot thick ice in spots.
 

Jeff had to take off the bridge in order to break a path through the ice under the bridge to allow water to flow from one side to another. He left it off in hopes that more sunlight reaching the ice would also quicken the thawing process.
 

When the snow melts, I'll be moving the bird feeders further out into the garden and will be cleaning up a huge mess on my cement patio but seeing birds this "up close" all winter has been well worth the work it will take.
 

Did I mention is is going to be in the 60's this weekend? Let the spring gardening season begin!

Sprinter sunrise...

It's hard to believe we are one third of the way through Spring and we have yet to see the beautiful season arrive in these parts. We are still having "Sprinter", which is when the calendar says spring and the weather is still screaming winter! This morning as the first rays of pink sun peaked through the trees I captured these shots of the backyard during the morning "blue hour".

Yesterday as the wet heavy snow was falling the feeders were busier than I have ever seen them, I actually refilled them twice during the day.
 

The robins were left wondering why on earth they didn't stay south.
 

So while it may be Sprinter at least the sun is shining and it is 34 degrees out so we'll have a little melting today and the warmth of this beautiful smile is gracing my home today which makes me not even care about the snow!

 

birds and skirts...

We definitely got a bunch of April snow here on Thursday but it has already starting melting away. Yesterday, the lawn was covered in redwing blackbirds that spooked when I tried to take a photo. The bossy robin is still coming to the feeder and tolerates the juncos eating at the same time but scares away the bluejays, chickadees and redpolls. I spotted both rooster and hen pheasants looking for corn under the snow on Friday as well.
 

With all the snow still remaining and more forecast for next week it is so wonderful to see these first signs of spring...the goldfinches are molting to their bright yellow plumage!
I forgot one of my most amazing photos (even though it is really poor quality) in my "catching up" post. A pileated woodpecker flew into the backyard and landed on the pine lady! This is a yard "lifer" as we have never seen one on our property before and I couldn't grab a camera fast enough. Dang, if he didn't fly away before I could focus and has not made another appearance since then.

 
 Since I obviously can't be working in my gardens, I spent time this week creating the April ruffle skirts and a baseball outfit for Brooklyn to wear to her daddy's baseball games. Already two of the mommies have told me I maybe should have made the t-shirts with snowflakes instead of raindrops!