A day of yum...

Sunday was very high on the yum scale in Nockinbirdland.  We finally got around to making the Valentine's Day "funfetti" cookies.  Good on their own, even better with canned icing and spinkles.  We were super fancy and put a decorator tip through the corner of a baggie, squashed all the icing in and went to town.  Reminder to self:  keep slice/bake cookies and icing on hand.  Little Miss was self entertained for quite some time.  And she did a pretty good job, too!

She must get it from her Molly...

who made a ridiculously delicious chocolate/pecan meringue pie for Sunday dinner (the dinner was chili-dogs, really good chili-dogs at that).  Best meringue EVER.  Proving the law of karmic balance, perhaps, were her turnovers...

a sad waste of pastry.  That pie, however, numnumnum.  I need to ask her for the recipe to make it again soon!

A walk in the "100 Akre Wood"

Down the deer trail at the edge of our (gigantic) yard, somewhere along the property line of our side and back neighbors, someone has created a magic space.  And they even labeled it:  100 Aker Wood.  While I am not an advocate of trespassing, this being Texas and all, who can resist that?  Little Miss and Loverboy found it on one of the snow days and she's been intrigued ever since.  I don't know if they've been back, but I went for a few minutes with her last weekend and she's bugged me enough at the end of every day this week that I finally caved today.  I am a reluctant trespasser...but it is cool.

The safety googles were her idea, in case there were any "pokey branches" at her eye level. 

That is quite an oak tree cluster, with limbs running along the ground.

Emily, of course, loooves it too.

A portrait of Mama and Emily by Little Miss.

We only found the one feather, so we decided a blue jay dropped it while preening in the tree.  There would be more, surely, if it had become dinner for any of the many feral cats that live in the culverts on our back street...wouldn't there?

Lots of vine-y-ness action on the trees.

And moss is actually growing on the northern side.

We found some pretty purple flowers.

Any idea what these are? 

Back at the house, Little Miss was anxious to show me our first daffodil of spring.  We have daffodils!

And, just because it's so cute I thought I'd share, look at my girl rockin' the '80s side pony for school this morning:

Nockinbirds Noshing

We've had a couple of days of "firsts" in our new nest:

First Pizza Night in the New Nest.  Delicious as usual.  Loverboy even cleaned up after himself--he has a flour flingin' fiesta on pizza night.  My mother is shuddering right now just thinking about it, aren't you, Mother?

And, given the unusually warm weather, tonight was the First Al Fresco Dining at the New Nest.  Burgers on the grill--yum.  Emily certainly thought so.  She stayed veeerrry close to Loverboy while he did his char-thing.  Then she tried to trip him when he was bringing the burgers over.  Sneaky, that furry girl is.

Little Miss and I amused ourselves on the patio while Loverboy cooked (that's right, two nights in a row--go ahead girls, be jealous). 

Since our "outdoor furniture" consists of camp chairs and a folding table, it doubles easily as a scooter park.

Our house is a very, very, very fine house indeed--outside as well as inside.

Birthday party at last...

The bouncy place party was a big hit with all who were there.  For some reason, most of the really adorable pictures won't load here tonight.  And since I'm pretty sure I still have strep throat (I have to ball my hands into fists and screw my face up to force myself to swallow), I'm just going to let the pictures do the talking...

Even Miss Stanley dropped by to wish Little Miss a happy birthday party.  Talk about above and beyond, to stop by on a Saturday...there's no way I could ever be a kindergarten teacher.

Molly bought her a real cell phone--really.  Every time I turn around, she's on the phone, and since the only number she knows is Molly's, I think justice has been served.

The balloon races were a close second to the bouncies.  I think that was the last hurrah, or sugar high from the cake.  They were worn out after an hour and half of bouncing.  Brilliant.

Snow day! And "puppy wrestling"...

A new favorite Nockinbird Snow Day Sport:  "puppy wrestling."  Since there's never any actual physical contact, I'd say the puppy is always the winner.  I really think we have residual cabin fever from last weeks' 4-day snow day break.

Mama's Back!

Miss me?  The Nockinbirds have been busy, busy, busy!  In fact, the Nockinbirds have moved to a new nest:

More pictures to follow, promise.  But don't expect the white, icy stuff.  Just an aberration...a four day aberration last week...possibly followed up with more white, icy aberration tonight... Oh, the glories of snow days in a new home...

the back patio makes a fantastic skating rink....

My first baking endeavor in my new oven.  What better way to celebrate being out of school on a snow day that popping open a can of cinnamon rolls...unless one were to unroll those cinnamon rolls and stuff them with chocolate chips and caramel bits...

mmmmmmmmm.

Frolicking with Emily after a romp in the frosty yard.  All is cozy and wonderful...until it feels a little chilly in the house.  Crank up the furnace!  Really, crank it up.  Uh, I know it's cold outside, but it's not getting any warmer when we turn up the thermostat.  Why?  Oh!  THE HEATER WON'T WORK!!!  And it's the coldest weather we've seen here in twenty years.

Loverboy got to know the fireplace very well, because it was the only heat he had for four days (or two, until we got a couple of the last space heaters Lowe's had).  Little Miss and I decamped to Molly and Papa's house while Loverboy kept the pipes from freezing in our nonetheless fabulous new house.

While we were at Molly and Papa's, or as I like to call it, Nockinbird Satellite Campus since it's only 1.4 miles down the road,  someone had the audacity to turn six...S!I!X!  Where is my baby?  Who is this ridiculously tall kid with a crop of adult teeth who likes to play mancala (and beat her father) and chill out before bed watching a lava lamp (a gift from Molly--pink lava, purple liquid--to match her decorating scheme of her new bedroom)?

Loverboy did leave the Nockinbird Nest a couple of times of day to keep all on an even keel.

There's always fun stuff to get into at Molly's house...and no pick-up-after-yourself rules are enforced by the Molly.  She's changed a lot since I knew her as a kid.

By Thursday, though, the charm of snow days were beginning to wear off--or at least the unnecessary coldness of them was.

Except for the Nockinbird with the built in/on fur coat.  I'm not sure of the biology involved, but I think our dog is part cat.  She was going insane with all the birds on the ground desperately pecking at the frozen pecans.  She wore a path through the snow tearing back and forth chasing them.  I think she actually caught/killed one when we were moving into the Nest.  She was outside by herself for a few minutes and when I opened the door, there was a deceased chickadee on the welcome mat with a pleased-looking dog standing over it.  I'll spare you the crime scene photo.

It's a good thing the deer didn't press their luck.

So pretty...sooooo cold.

Speaking of moving in, which is still an on-going process, Loverboy did pack us off to Molly's to miss the bulk of the big stuff.  It coincided with a visit from Lolly and Lolo.  This was back when the weather was nice, nicer anyway.

Good cousinly fun had by all.  Except the photographer.  It's like nailing jell-o to a tree to get these three to all look and look normal at the same time.

Back to today...given the threat of iciness again tonight, I hit Walmart to lay in supplies after work.  When I got home, this was awaiting me...

Another tooth gone!!

And Little Miss Picky About Her Socks didn't like the way the toe seam in what she says are her favorite brand of socks was feeling.  Before Loverboy stopped cooking dinner to wrestle with that earth-shattering task, she decided to take matters into her own hands...armed with her snub-nose art center scissors.  She "trimmed" the offending strings.  That's my tooth-less holey-toed independent girl.

I promise I'm back!  More Nockinbird adventures to come!