Taylor's Birthday Party

Saturday was Taylor's birthday party at the Raptor Center. She had several of her friends, some neighbors, and some family join us. The fact that Taylor has shown a high level of interest in raptors - especially the Bald Eagle for the last several years made this such a fun place to go for her party. We walked into the Raptor Center to prepare for the party and right in front of us was a real live Bald Eagle! Taylor was in heaven! We received a great show in the auditorium with some raptors and all of the kids asked really great questions. Next, we received a tour of the raptors back behind the center. Most of those birds will not be able to be re-released out into the wild due to their injuries, but they were amazing to see up close just the same. After the tour, we headed into our party room for cake and games. I think that everyone had a good time, and it was so much fun to see our family members, too. Here is a link to all of the pictures from the party.

Today was just an amazing day to spend outside - and we weren't the only ones to think that! I think we saw just about everyone in the neighborhood at some point today. Everyone hides in their houses all winter long, and it is just so nice to see everyone getting out and it always amazes me to see how much the neighborhood little ones have grown. The kids and I planted seeds and worked in the garden this morning, while Panod cleaned out gutters and hung his swing chair that we gave him as a gift for Father's Day a few years ago. By the time I was firing up the grill for dinner tonight, we had a few neighbors stop over and we all got caught-up on the latest news in our lives. I never would have imagined in a million years that we would get to experience such a great and caring environment like the one that this neighborhood has shown us. The best part about it is the fact that all of our children get to experience all of this with us.

Our neighbors gathering in the front yard for some much needed catching-up
Some neighbors gave us some watermelon and Ian has just discovered
that he drippped some on himself while he was eating it