May's Marvels 2012

I hope you're sitting down as you read this--I don't want anyone fainting and hurting themselves because it's only been one week since I last updated the blog...and here comes another update!!!

By all rights, May should be my month

--between my birthday and Mother's Day

--ah, maybe some day!

I did get some super sweet Mother's Day gifts!!

A cool tile, decorated exceptionally by Scott, a flower pot, with seeds in a cool bag from Nathan and a lovely card from Alan (not shown here). I'm such a lucky Mom!!! I wouldn't trade any of my boys for anything in the whole world! I hope they know how much I love them!!

 (We're skipping birthday pictures

--mostly because there aren't any!)

Then we have the Track awards assembly. So Alan started out the track season thinking he would like to do throws (shotput and discus). Well, the new throws coach didn't want him--he had his eye on some beefier young men. So he gave hurtles a try--he probably could have done that, but then the coaches decided to try him out as a sprinter and HOLY COW who knew all that speed was just sitting there this whole time--I never would have guessed it to watch him when he's getting ready to go to school (or anywhere else for that matter)!!!! He ended up running in the 100 m dash and last leg in the 4 x 100 and 4 x 200 relays. Amazing!! When we realized he was going to be a sprinter we got him these sweet running spikes....

Why is he wearing running spikes with his jeans you may ask? Because they were brand new and the guy said Alan should wear them around the house (without the spikes in them to get used to them; the spikes actually screw into the bottom of the shoe). So that's what Alan did--this was the day we got them. So Alan does well during the season, getting some ribbons here and there. But the big day was the district meet--he placed 3rd in the district for the 100 m dash. Here he is with his medal!! : )

Then during the awards assembly Alan got his certificate for participation and his second letter--

the first was for Cross Country--

and a certificate for most improved sprinter!! : )

I got one fairly decent video of Alan running--it makes me laugh to watch him because his little legs (OK his legs that are almost as long as mine) go so fast it's like he's just skimming across the Earth--I LOVE to watch him run!! Here's the video...

Whew, good times there!!! GO ALAN!!

Some other random fun things.....

Nathan finally figured out how to transform his Optimus Prime transformer--the one that took both his Dad and myself like 45 minutes to figure out how to transform--I was working on the tractor part and John was working on the trailer (or maybe it was the other way around, I don't really remember)! He was so excited--here it is...

One more Alan story.....since Alan was a little guy--4 or 5, he has had this unreal ability to find 4 (and sometimes 5) leaf clovers. He can be just standing there near a patch of clover, bend down and find them--it's ridiculous!! So I was taking his pictures outside in his track uniform and he noticed some clovers to he bends down and kid you not points out like 15 four-leaf clovers!!! What the heck!!! Then he finds one with 5 leaves,

so I had to get a picture of that!!

The last exciting story from May was the baby birds....

So apparently, in one of the two strips of insulation that remain in the garage, some birds decided to build a nest and have a family.

I discovered this when I was walking around the back of my car and saw some little black blob out of the corner of my eye. On closer inspection, I realized it was a baby bird. I thought it was probably dead so I called Alan over to take care of it and he bent down to scoop it up with his hand. I freaked out and told him not to touch it!! Then he sat there for a minute and said, "it's breathing".

We immediately started looking around for the nest--and found it, in the insulation. Alan put the baby bird back in the nest and we counted 6 babies total.

There were two kind of pushed out of the nest, off to the side and four in the nest. We were concerned about the two "outcasts" but there wasn't really anything we could do except hope that they were not completely ignored. The insulation ended up being like an extension of the nest so all the babies fit--if the nest had been built in a tree or something, these two probably would have been ejected and might not have made it.

My flash spooked the ones in the nest--maybe they thought is was feeding time 'cause they opened up wide!! Cuties!! Alan and I thought it was probably not a good idea for them to be hanging out on the insulation, so Alan got a paper towel and folded it up and put it on the insulation. As they got bigger, and the temperatures got hotter--they were all in and out of the nest.

So we found them on the 25th, and by the 30th they were looking quite a bit fuzzier and their eyes were open. I think we lost one somewhere along the way, because there were eventually only 5.

I was thrilled one day to catch Mom or Dad feeding them! Pretty cool!!!

Stay tuned to see here how the story ends.......