Pictures from This Week

Our baby house finches left on Monday.  I got this picture of two of them on Sunday.

Carter and Rylan are still doing school almost every weekday (we do take an occasional day off).  Most of what they are doing is just review since when school stopped, they were both starting to move toward preparing for the end-of-year standardized tests.  I want them to get something out of this time being at home so we decided to work on typing.  It will save them both so much time if they can type their writings properly instead of using the one finger method.  So far they are both doing well!

On Tuesday we walked the Anderson Road Fitness Trail on Percy Priest Lake (state parks finally opened again yesterday but we'd been struggling to find new places to go).  This ended up being a great little walk and the kids loved playing at the lake's edge.  The wind was intense that day and created some descent waves.

Jen and her kids and dogs joined us that day.

Our youngest ...

For awhile we walked along the rocky shore instead of the paved trail.

The kids got creative and made this "sculpture".  There were a ton of Corona bottle caps around so they used them to decorate it and said it was a memorial to all those who have died from "Corona".

On Wednesday we walked the Brentwood Greenway and played in the Little Harpeth.

We did the same thing yesterday with our "quarantine friends" but did a different section.  We even found two snakes (this one is a water snake).  We always find snakes with Jen's family lately!

There were two baby horses at Ravenwood Farm!

It was rainy Thursday and a shipment arrived that day so Carter and Rylan did this to their hair!!!

Haircuts

I ordered scissors a couple of weeks ago and finally got them.  Today was haircut day for Carter and Rylan!  I think I did okay considering it was the first time I've ever cut their hair!  Both seem to like how it turned out.  I barely nicked the edge of Rylan's ear with the clippers when I didn't have a guard on them and he will NOT let anyone forget it!

And I only cut my finger about five times!

Pictures from This Week

We've still been going for lots of hikes (and sometimes just walks on greenways since all the State Parks and Natural Areas are closed).  Carter climbed a magnolia tree last Thursday.  Do you see him?  He looks a lot higher in the picture than he really was.

Carter and Rylan continue to have their art classes via Zoom on Friday afternoons.  It's working out okay.  We miss the in-person class, but it's nice to have something on our calendar.

Last Friday they painted peppers.

Rylan's painting:

Carter's painting:

It rained all day Sunday (Easter) and was really windy that night.  By Monday it looked like it had snowed under our cherry trees from all the flower petals!

The boys are getting bored - and need haircuts.  Carter tried out a new style on Tuesday (it has not been repeated since).

We hiked at Percy Warner Park on Tuesday with Jen's family.  It was cold (in the 40s) and unexpectedly started SNOWING on us during the the hike!  Luckily I had hats and gloves for us but it was COLD!

Today was much warmer (in the 70s).  We met Jen's family at Tower Park.  We walked the greenways, played in the creek, played soccer and frisbee, and took her dogs to the dog park.

Gray is a cool dude :)

Doesn't look like Gray is taking a selfie in the photo that I took?

The boys all picked me some flowers while at the park, and we have a new wildflower bouquet to enjoy.

Our baby house fitches are getting so big!!!  The hatched either April 4th or 5th.

Here they are on April 9th:

On April 13th:

And yesterday, April 16th.

I don't think they'll be in the nest much longer.  They are getting way too big to all fit (and that is a lot of poop around the nest!).

Pictures from This Week

We went on a long walk Sunday evening and walked through the parking lot of school to get to another neighborhood.  They have stopped mowing the grass at school and we picked tons of flowers to make some bouquets.

On Tuesday we hiked the Harpeth Woods Trail in Edwin Warner Park.  It was a 2.5 mile loop trail that was better than we expected.

The boys found 3 snakes (all non-venomous).  I got pictures of the first two but the third one was in the river and swam away before I got there (we think that one was a diamondback water snake).

Ratsnake:

Ringneck snake:

Also, more beautiful wildflowers!

Early Buttercup (Ranunculus Fascicularis):

Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia Virginica):

Fernleaf Phacelia (Phacelia Bipinnatifida):

Striped Cream Violet (Viola Striata):

Wild Comfrey (Cynoglossum Virginianum):

The leaves are starting to fill in!  Less stark winter trails!

After we finished the hike we played in the Little Harpeth River for a bit.

Yesterday we changed things up and got our these instead of the hammocks since I was going to mow the grass.

The house fitch babies are starting to look a little more like birds!  I can now pick out some beaks and their feathers are coming in!

My mom made us all some masks.  The boys really like theirs!