Bird spotting

Anyone know what bird this is? We saw her this morning and loved observing it in action. I looked in www. enature.com/fieldguides to help me identify it but no luck. Is she little chubby or possibly prego? Of course, it can also be a he.









The color looks much more true in my camera. This was taken through our screen. I was afraid she might be scared if I opened the screen but she stayed for a quite a while. See the blue on the tip of the feathers and the orange hue on her tummy?

enjoying summer

We finally got a chance to see the beautiful peonies and even though we missed the peak time (early to mid June) to see it, we still got to see some. I especially want the children to see as many traditional Chinese dresses like the "qipao" have peonies.

J didn't think this particular kind smelled nice. She like the smell of the white peony variety (picture below).

We also saw Echinacea or coneflower today. I remember it seeing it just yesterday from Lisa @ 5orangepotatoes. Lisa, now I finally know what you are talking about when you did the cone flower give-a-way. I actually thought it was Cornflower. LOL! Thanks!


My brave little climber. There was an earlier discussion about our tonsils so Prime wants to check out daddy's tonsils.

Going through the trails; stopping at the "Fairy Woods &/Troll Hollow"

Trying something new: swimming in the river. Believe it or not, the kids were scared at the beginning and J asked a whole bunch of questions like is there crab in there? How about lobster? Daddy said, no, those are in salt water like ocean but you might find some fish in there (as we see someone fishing) but they won't bite or bother you to which J says, well shark is a fish and they bite! Just go ahead, we tell them. Few minutes later, they were having a ball! We had to tell them not to go too far as the drift gets very fast just past this island.

Playing with a captive painted turtle. It belongs to S.

In lieu of going to the playground

In lieu of going to the playground last night, the kids practiced tennis by our garage with daddy and then after getting permission to play with the water hose, eyes sparkled so bright and so excited. They came home soaking wet and happy. Priceless.




Prime surprised me when he came home and wrote this all by himself. I didn't think he knew how to spell some of the words. Interesting he wrote today as "to-Day". :) He can be often found writing and drawing and even playing with lots of concentration. Maybe that is a result of a lot time spend playing or just his particular personality? I'm not quite sure. But it pays sometimes to be a 2nd child so that mama can be more experienced and more well read. ;)
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Today, we went to walk along the trails. This is becoming one of our favorite places to observe nature and play outdoors. Children's garden is also here along with other numerous trails. The kids do need some endurance training, however, as do I. But today, maybe because I took my vitamins, I felt fine.


Seeing a white Huron or egret fly was pretty cool. Here are much better pictures than I could ever take. Hopping along the stumps and discovering a tent made with sticks.

We really got to watch the geese while taking a snack break.

Ginko! I love the fan shape of ginko leaves. Daddy wants to plant ginko and get some ginko nuts to cook. Reminds me of China. Checking out the sundial. The kids were more intersted in butterfly than the sundial.

Family of geese, Family of snails (daddy think the one fell off thus creating a gap)
I really wanted to touch that bumble bee but still felt little unsure. And I didn't want to ask Prime to do as I think he would if I asked him to; I didn't want to risk him getting stung. But it seemed pretty mellow..maybe next time. It look really soft and cute.

Adventure in the park

We were suppose to meet some our friends in the park, but since it was little rainy, they decided to stay home. Though it was wet, I don't think it hindered us at all. :) I am glad she planed this, otherwise we might not have gone out and definitely not to this particular park. The best part was after playing on the play structure, we went to take a little walk along the creek and the crooked path.

Up they run, with a lot of enthusiasm to the top of the hill.

At the top! Can you see them? They are there!

Running down. Oops, Prime fell but he got up and finished up. I didn't realized he fell pretty hard until just now. (daddy had a good laugh at this one when he saw the super zoomed in picture of Prime in the shape of "O" with legs flipped back and touching his head.

I found a 4 leaf clover.

J looking for hers.

First try - sitting on a log on top of the creek. Prime was scared.

Yet he wanted to try again. This time, he is more comfortable and even managed a smile.

J and Prime having fun with a gift from nature.