I'm not a "lets live out in the middle of no where" kinda girl but there have been some awesome perks that come with living in our borrowed log-cabin.

The past month we've been watching our dive-bombing friend, "Mamma Mockingbird" build a nest...right outside our back door...right there in the corner. Its a beautiful nest! I love taking pictures of it and ~~being grossed out by~~ admiring the unique materials she chose to use.

Shortly after training my girls to stomp across the deck as we approached the back door in the evenings, we found a tiny piece of a shell. WHAT!?! Yep, she had a baby up there now. So Cool!

I ran into the house the morning I found the shell and began our "homeschool spring science observation lesson". LOL Yeah, I don't so much plan these things...just pretend I'm clever like that. I first showed my husband the awesome find...he was less than impressed but a little more than eeked-out that I was so excited about it. I showed the kids who tried to mimic my enthusiasm. They were slightly confused.

I did convince the hubs to climb on a chair and take pictures for me. That was quite entertaining for me! He was slightly nervous about "mamma mockingbird" dive-bombing him as he snapped away with his phone. He could hear her chirping up a storm from the tree just a couple yards away. He may or may not have called me out there to "watch his back" and I may or may not have used bright colored paddles as a deterrent to her possible sneak attack.

Maybe this wasn't the best idea...GROSS! We didn't let the kids look in the nest for days...you can see why. We didn't want them to have nightmares! After they become slightly fluffy and a little larger/easier to see, we let each kids take a turn "observing them". Again with the mirrored excitement. With rules like, talk quietly and don't tough, there's little to be enthused about.flip flop pic courtesy of the Iz

We've been "observing" these babies for about 18 days now. They are still not adorable but MUCH better than the first site of pink-skin-lumps. I think we have discovered 5...although they all look conjoined and we still have a hard time identifying 5 beaks at any given time. The kids have learned to love seeing new pictures and even being lifted up to "check on the baby birds".

Our current fear...That Stare. lol No, really its that they aren't going to be pushed out of the nest by their mamma but that one of them {probably the one on the bottom of the stack} will breath wrong and they'll all tumble out. All I hear in my head is the song,

"There were 5 in the ~~nest~~ bed
and the little one said,
Roll Over.
Roll Over.
They all rolled over
and one fell out.
There were 4 in the bed
and the little one said..."

Anyways...I'll update you when they take flight. But until then, I'll leave you with this "meme"!