Birdfeeder politics and an actual post with photos

I have been writing this post for like 2 weeks now.  The birdfeeder part anyway.  I would say I don't know what happened to the month of April, but I do.  My nephew was born, we had Maggie and Ben's birthday party, we attended another party, we had my BIL's birthday, my Dad's birthday, Good Friday, Easter. . .was there more?  I'm sure there was, and I'm sure that the rest of the life lived around all of those things was almost as chaotic. 

But about the birds.  I know I have posted about how into birds the kids are.  They like to watch them outside of our window and it makes for great meal conversation.  I had what has proven to be a pretty brilliant plan, we put a bird feeder outside of the window for their viewing pleasure. 

It turns out that even we love the birds.  Andy and I are almost as interested as spotting the different kinds as they are.  I even checked out books from the library so we could identify them beyond "the yellow birdie", "the brown birdie" and the big birdies.  It is amazing how many birds we have now seen come up to our birdfeeder that we never saw in our yard.  We have also made some interesting observations, hence my thinking about the politics at the birdfeeder.  I had many thoughts about this before we looked at the bird guide, so bear with some of my informal terminology :-) 

Most of the little birdies come in small groups.  We either have one small group of very hungry little brown speckly birds, or there are a bunch of them that have discovered our all you can eat buffet.  They like to come to the feeder when no one else is there, or they will come, perch on the deck and kind of take over so the other birds will leave. 

They do tolerate the little gray ones with the mohawks.  But not many of the other birds. 

We have one woodpecker that seems to live in one of the trees behind our house.  He doesn't give a shit if there are other birds at the feeder.  He comes, he eats, he ignores the other birds.  Andy thought he saw him attack another bird today, I am not sure I believe it. 

Doves come in pairs and are very polite and peaceful.  They literally got in a line and waited for their turn. 

Orioles are stupid.  We had one that flew back and forth, would perch on the railing, make a pass at the feeder but then would have to go back because he couldn't figure out how to get to the food.  He did this through like an entire meal or two of ours. 

I don't know what my original point was for this post, but I will say that "Hey Ben, how many birdies are on the feeder now?" is a great way to distract a crabby baby at meal time.  We talk about the birds, where they go when they are not at the feeder (home) why no birdies are there sometimes (napping or playing with their friends) and how apparently birdies really like moo cows.  I'm not sure why but that seemed to be the general consensus around the table. 

Okay, the rest of the point of my post?  Photos!  I have some pictures from their party, some pictures from my attempted birthday photo shoot (fail) and some pictures of my new nephew from the first days in the hospital.  I don't know if I can manage may captions, but let's just say that any of the pictures that look like I was really kind of trying and not snapshotting, my main focus lately has been lighting.  Trying to use natural light most effectively and how to bounce my flash in different directions for different effects.  Enjoy.

Meet the new nephew Parker Gavin!

We put Maggie to work the day of the party since she wouldn't nap anyway.  Girl discovered she really likes cleaning windows, and who was I to argue with her new found passion?  Grandma supervised, and I loved this shot. 

Showing off our new chairs and our adorable birthday shirts made by a talented MoM friend of mine.  I wish I had a better shot of both of them in the shirts, but hey, they are two, and it is getting rough.   

The cake my talented aunt made for us. 

Another fabulous family photo. 

Hanging with her best girlies, Olivia and Gianna.  Gianna is one of Maggies BFF's, and well, I think Ben wants her to be his girlfriend. 

Here was one of our worst picture planning moments, sure the cake was in a great spot for setting it up, but in order to get good shots of them blowing out the candles, someone would have had to be standing in the corner where the cake is.  This kind of bummed me out. 

I did have a good angle for cupcake eating. 

Another adorable baby shot above, and my failed outdoor photo shoot below.  We had gone to a friend's birthday party on their actual birthday and I wanted to just stop on the way home to get a few shots of them together on their birthday.  Well, it was windy, the sun was setting and no one wanted to cooperate.  Oh, and Ben was in a much cuter outfit before he fell in the pool at the party.  No, I'm not kidding, and yes, he was just fine.  The pool had a cover and Andy was already on his tail when he fell.  He was awfully sad about it though, coming out crying "Benny wet, Benny wet!"     

This however was adorable and not posed by Mommy.  I was doing something in the kitchen, came out to see why they were so quiet and found them giggling and snuggling under their blankets watching TV together.  Aw. 

Okay, and these.  In a very silly mood one night I decided we should set up the new train track pieces along with some other "props" so that when they got up the next morning it was all ready to go.  Andy did the track and I did the decorating.  And yes, Mommy and Daddy had fun.  Maybe Mommy more than Daddy.  He didn't appreciate my farm area, train station, zoo, etc. that I set up around the tracks.  The babies thought it was cool the next day though, I swear. 

 
Alright, well, I'll try to post some more before another month passes, I did do a newborn shoot with my nephew that I'd like to share some photos from, and have a few fun "this is my life" kind of photos to add too, but this is enough for the night.  Hope all is well in everyone's little corner of the world tonight.