Springy, springy, spring

Spring has sprung in Louisiana! The trees have buds on them, flowers are flowering, bees are buzzing, and babies are being born.

Hunter and I took a nature walk a few days ago. We saw a studly bird making quite a ruckus. He was pretty funny to us, but hopefully he was charming to some young missy bird. He had a stick in his mouth and was showing it off, obviously saying "Hey pretty girlies, I can make a mighty fine nest! Any takers?!" Hunter noticed how the bird was making all sorts of different noises. I'm guessing if puffing out his chest and making a tweeting noise didn't work, he moved on to the next tactic; showing his throat and making a deeper whistling noise. After we watched him for a little while I told Hunter we needed to move on. He wouldn't have many chicks taking him up on his offer with us standing there!

Hunter and I also visited a nearby pond. We saw tons of baby turtles. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love turtles, frogs and lizards. Most of these turtles were red ear sliders, and box turtles. They were *so* cute and I was in love. It was beautiful to watch them in their natural habitat, playing and interacting with eachother. I didn't have a camera on me, and it was almost time to get Drew and Louisa from school. Hunter and I went home to get the camera, and after we got the kids from school we came back to show them.

Here are just a *few* of the pictures I took:

There were three babies playing with their mama. They followed her around for awhile, and one tried to climb on her back. She didn't seem to like that because she swam faster until it fell off! Don't we all wish we could do that sometimes? Walk just a little faster till the kids get off our heals!

And there was a small group of turtles that seemed to be playing tag with eachother. One would swim up and touch another turtle's shell, then that one would take off and touch another turtle, and it went on for some time.

Today we took the kids to a nature trail so they could get the cobwebs off their bicycles. Tires needed to be filled up with air and seats needed to be readjusted since it's been a few months since we last rode. Louisa just needs a new bike altogether. Even with her seat adjusted, her knees came up to the handlebars.

Hunter had a hard time just riding. He wanted to stop and look at everything. He's an observer. He can stand in one spot for a long time, just taking in all there is to see. Drew and Louisa wanted to get on their bikes and go, go, go. So Daddy gave Drew his watch and set it at 2 minutes. He said when it beeps, turn around and come back towards us. That also helped them get more exercise in!

As we were going back to the truck, Hunter got off his bike to look around. He notices the smallest things. Must be an advantage of being so small. He saw a caterpillar and said, "You are going to turn into a beautiful butterfly!" (Gotta love Eric Carle books and Big Backyard magazines!) Hunter told the caterpillar good-bye and said "Have fun being a butterfly!"