Robins grow up

The geese are having their babies.

Last evening I counted 5 families.

Each with 4-7 babies.

That is a lot of goose poop on the sidewalk.

But totally worth the walk around the lake. The neighbor's purple martin house.

God paints the most beautiful sunsets!!!




If you have read any of my blogs,
you will know I have been following some baby robins
from the start of their young life.
A mother robin made a nest in a bird feeder close to our deck.
Robin #1 flew the coop last night.
I watched him fly out but I didn't have my camera on me!
Here they are before they began leaving the nest.


I watched Robin #1 as he hopped around.
He hopped down toward the creek.
I hope Mommy Robin finds him.

I thought of it overnight.
The Bible says that God watches over the birds of the air.
He is aware of each sparrow (and I'm sure robins).
He was aware of where this one is too.

This morning, I went out on my deck and watched Robin #2 fly out of the nest.
How neat to be able to see that!
I followed and found him in the flowers.
Flying just a few inches at a time.

He hopped onto our neighbor's wheelbarrow.

I held my breath as he hopped on the grating of the window well.

But he didn't fall in. Whew!

He jumped onto the air conditioning unit.

Mommy Robin came and sat with him a little.

She flew away and came back with a juicy worm.

Where are you Baby Robin?

Ah! There you are.

It took a few tries to get the worm to the Baby.

Baby #3 left the nest.

I missed that.

I found him under the deck.

Peeping at Baby #4.

Baby #4 is the last one to leave.

Baby #4 was peeping back to Baby #3.

Peep. Peep. "Come on, you can do it!

Peep. Peep. "It looks too scary!

"Besides, there is this human sitting down on the steps watching me.

Daddy Robin came to encourage him.

Several times it would fluff up it's wings and

I would think surely it would take off.

Mama bird came with a juicy worm for this one.

How do they keep track of each baby and where it goes?

I'm sure they know it's voice.

Just like our Father.

He hears us when we call to Him.

It took soooo long.

I waited to take a picture.

A looooong time.

At one point I thought I would clap my hands

to try to scare it out.

Big mistake.

Daddy was not happy with me at all!

He came and scolded me like you wouldn't believe.

At least he didn't dive bomb me like Nicole Buhler's bird!

I tried to encourage the bird.

Come on! You can do it!

I sing a song with the girls

"Fly birdie, fly, fly,

Fly birdie, fly, fly,

Fly birdie, fly, fly,

Fly,fly, fly."

A silly song, but I sang it in my head to this one.

Birds were meant to fly (well, except for penguins, ostriches and Big Bird).

God has designed us for His purpose too.

"I cry out to God Most High, to God, who fulfills His purpose for me." Ps. 57:2

I can imagine Him encouraging us to "fly",

to do whatever it is He has designed for each one of us to do.

Finally, as Daddy Robin swooped by the nest, he also took off.

I took the picture I had been waiting for,

but alas, since I don't have one of those cameras that takes several snaps one after the other, the one I did take flopped. He was hidden behind the bird feeder.

Drat.

Here he is on the ground.

I keep saying "he". I don't know if they are he's or she's.

Whatever.

Probably two of each maybe.

This is a photo of Baby #3.

We did name this one.

We call him Deck,

sort of southern for Dick.

Because he climbed the steps onto my deck

and sat there for quite some time.

Then he flew off.

Hopped over to the neighbor's deck

and hopped up those steps

and sat on top of it.

Soon they will learn how to fetch for worms

all by themselves.

For now, Daddy and Mommy do it for them.

It has been so fun to watch these birds from the start.

Daddy watching over Deck.

The empty nest.

cowhands

I thought I would post our photos from the photobooth at the wedding.

We are so not country.

Don't much care for the music.

But we picked cowboy hats out of the box of hats.

Could have been clowns instead.

We do love going to the Pretty Prairie rodeo though!
Al grew up on a farm by Pretty Prairie.

Sometimes those rodeo clowns get a little too crass for me.

But what fun to watch a cowboy thrown off a horse or raging bull.

We usually try to sit in the front row and get in on all the action!

Maybe we can take Hannah this year.

She has her own cowgirl hat too

(from the Cowgirl Jesse, Toy Story 2 costume she got for her birthday).

If you know anyone getting married, we recommend

Joel and Kendall Smith's photobooth!

girls

Jill had a piano recital for her students last evening and Adam had a meeting at church, so we watched the girls. We have this hammock swing under our deck (we got it in San Diego) and we love it!

We have also put in a little swing that the girls love to swing in.

"Rice! Rice!" (Actually safflower seeds)

"No, Sophie. Those are seeds"

"Seez! Seez!"

What is under this stepping stone?

Hannah likes to talk to herself and pretends a lot.

When the girls came over, I was sweeping up the grass after mowing.

Hannah asked if she could help.

I got some brooms for the girls to work.

Soon I heard her talking to herself,

"My Nana always makes me clean up after her."

She cracks me up!

After playing outside, a bath is a necessity.

They like lots of bubbles!

I heard Hannah say,

"My dreams have come true!

Bubbleland!"

And here is silly Sophie.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Look what I found in my yard this morning!

My parents wanted to get a patio set at Target today.

Jill and the girls met us there.

After shopping, it was close to lunch time.

So off to Cheddars we went!

When I opened my purse, I found this fork.

What in tarnation?

Is anyone missing a fork?

We were at Olive Garden on Sunday night.

Does this look like one of their forks?

How in the world did it end up in my purse?

Adam happened to be coming to Wichita to his 2nd office.

He studies best at Starbucks.

Too many distractions at the church office.

So he joined us at Cheddars.

Here is the patio set my parents got.

This evening, Al and I were sitting out on our deck.

Look who we saw.

Here is our dear friend, Andrea Siebert.

We see her pretty frequently out

taking pictures in our neighborhood.

Looks like she's taking engagment photos today.

Sometimes it is graduation pictures.

You can look at her site -

http://www.andreasphotography.net/

Thinking of Rich Dewey today. He had surgery

and had a kidney and mass removed.

Also thinking of someone considering Christ!

And a couple people diagnosed with cancer today.

And loss of job.

Christ was a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering.

Isaiah 53:3

The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them;

He delivers them from all their troubles.

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted

and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

Psalm 34:17,18

You have made known to me the path of life;

You will fill me with joy in Your presence,

with eternal pleasures in Your right hand.

Psalm 16:11

wedding & reunion

On Saturday, we went to a wedding. Here is a picture of one of Al's pharmacists, Harry and his wife, Linda. Their daughter was getting married in Wichita. When we arrived at the church and sat down , we noticed a photograph of a woman up at the front of the church. As we looked at it, we realized it was a friend of ours from long ago.

When we lived in Wichita between 1978-1981, we attended the Evangelical Free Church on Woodlawn & 21st streets. We belonged to a young married's Sunday School class called "The Homebuilders" class. We made lots of friends in that class. The photograph was of Linda Hanneman, who was part of that class. She passed away from cancer several years ago. Del and Linda and us used to get together outside of Sunday School class, in eachother's homes, or at parties. Al and Del ran together at times too. We moved to Newton and over the years we lost touch with most of these friends.

It dawned on us that Caitlin was marrying Del and Linda's son! As we sat there on the bench waiting for the wedding to start, we looked behind us and noticed many of our old friends from that class so many years ago (28 years)! Looked sort of the same, just kind of aged a little. Of course, Al and I haven't aged at all! Ha!

Brad and Caitlin

Here are one of our friends from Eve Free, Ray and Kulsum Dorsett. They used to be on staff with the Navigators. Kulsum is originally from Kenya (where our Kulsum from our church is from too). Kulsum and I were pregnant at the same time back in 1978. We were so sad when their daughter was born with a heart defect and passed away 8 days after birth (if I remember correctly). What a difficult time that was. It was so good to catch up and see how God has been working in their lives. I had to think of the young marrieds class at our church. Someday, perhaps if people move to another town, they may also have reunions such as we did this weekend. It was so fun to see them all! There was a wonderful Chocolate Candy Bar.

Isn't the cake fabulous??!!

Brad throws the garter.

This picture did not turn out, but for those of you from Grace, you will notice perhaps a young man in the right back waiting and hoping to catch the garter. You can't recognize him, but it is Jason Balzer! He happens to work for Brad's dad, Del Hanneman.

The decorations were so gorgeous! We heard that Linda got many of these off of E-Bay and plans to turn around and sell them on E-Bay! What a great idea!!

The party favor for each person was a gigantic Kiss!

I put a regular Kiss beside it so you can see the size.

Yup. I have started to eat it too!

Thank you, Harry and Linda for the great party1

Congratulations to Brad and Caitlin!