For the second year in a row now, we have a little birdie's nest in our lilac bush outside the kitchen window. At the very beginning of my maternity leave last year, I can remember the constant chirping and birds flying back and forth between the nest and the fence post and tree and another fence post and blah, blah, blah... The mama and papa bird kept constant watch over their lovely nest. While it was adorably cute and touching at first, the chirping, I have to admit, got a tad bit annoying after awhile. And, I am not the only one who was practically driven to the brink by chirping little birds...Riley literally almost made a break for it through our window screen about 50 times last spring/summer.
Well, I had my hunches a couple weeks ago that our bird friends had taken up shop in our bush again, because the chirping became louder and more constant outside. And, sure enough, when I pulled some branches back and strained my neck...there was a beautifuly crafted nest perched way inside the lilac bush. Unfortunately, I can't get a good enough angle to get a picture of the eggs (the nest is much further back this year), but here are a couple pictures of the nest and Riley at his post (taking a break to eat, of course) making sure the birds know he's got his eye on them...
Then Ally and Daddy made their way downstairs to find the Easter baskets that were left...
This was VERY exciting as you can see (you can also see by the looks of their hair that they had both just woken up).
Ally wondering what IS UP with this weird plastic grass??
As you can tell by the preceeding pictures, Ally made out like a bandit this year! Three baskets filled up with fun stuff for babies...a brand new sippy cup, a stuffed bunny, some crayons made just for littles, a brand new beach towel with her name on it and...some candy for daddy. :-) After baskets, we all got dressed and in our Easter best and headed to mass with Grandma and Grandpa C. We thought Ally would sleep through the whole thing (the reason we decided to wait and go to noon mass), but she was more interested in waving to everyone around us and looking at everything she possibly could. After church, we made a mad dash to Grandma Lang's for a nice Easter lunch. It was great to see everybody. While we were there, Ally snuck in a short nap in Maw-Maw's arms...
Cousin Jilly showed up in her Easter finest...pretty girl! We wish she would have been feeling better on her first Easter, though...pesky colds! (Get better soon, Jilly!!)
Cousin Kaylie was putting on a show for everyone, looking as cool as can be in Aunt Tiffany's sunglasses. :-)
We woke Ally up from her nap and made a beeline for Grandpa and Grandma T's house, where Ally got a new pinwheel which she enjoyed very much. Grandpa T. showed her how to get it to spin and she really tried hard to do it herself (she'll figure it out soon enough!). Granddaddy came down from Mentor, OH and it was very nice to see him, as always. We had another Easter meal, giggled at Ally and Jillian playing together, got some great shots of Ally in her pretty dress and then we were off to our next stop...
Here, he and Uncle Dave share some time on the couch watching The Masters...
It was a great day and thank you to all of our wonderful family for a wonderful Easter. We love spending time with each and every one of you and we miss those of you who were not able to be with us. Happy Easter everyone!
