YELLOW HEADED BLACKBIRD HEAVEN

For five and a half years I have been enjoying seeing these big guys at my bird feeders and they quickly became my favorite bird. They are Yellow Headed Blackbirds. I was a little confused when a few years ago I looked in our Utah bird book and saw that they are marsh birds. I couldn't for the life of my figure out why they came to my feeders but I figured they lived in one of the golf coarse water holes. But until last night I never went searching for them.

Each year we have more and more of them come visit out f

eeder along with the female

yellow heads. This year we had 11 males and 6 females, I assumed that was all there were...until I saw this.

There are HUNDREDS of the cuties living in a large marsh right by the clubhouse. I was in bird heaven, so of course I had to take a ton of pictures and walk around the marsh. I was amazed. If you get a chance to visit Eagle Lake in Roy...sto

p and enjoy my

bird family. it is quite an experience.

11TH BIRTHDAY

Today I am the proud mother of a preteen and while the thought terrifies me, nothing scares me more than realizing I am two years away from a full-fledged teenager.

In preparation for the big day my daughter, who has a seriously funny sense of humor, decided that she wanted a "sheep" cake. Don't ask me how the fascination with sheep happened because I am not sure of the answer. All I know is one night I tucked my child into bed and the next morning I woke up to farm animal sounds. "baaaaaa" I decided to go with the flow and have learned, as any shepherd has, to know which animal sounds to ignore and which to come running for. I swear though, every few hours she has to let out a stray "baaaa". It's like she can't "baaa" control herself. Heaven help us all.

Anyway, back to the birthday. Where was I....oh yeah, she wanted a sheep cake. Okay, so we start calling the bakeries and all of them seemed to scratch their heads. "Do you want it 3D?" "A what cake?" "I will have to get back to you" It was really disconcerting when no one was able to help me. I scratched my head for a minute and then though....google images. LOL I was SURE my child wasn't the only person who had ever asked for a sheep cake so I logged onto the trusty internet and hit the mother load.

Once we found a few cake designs she liked I hit the local grocery store and asked if they could make a cake similar to the ones she liked and they said "sure". Here is the result.

Last night the family got together to celebrate the big day with ice cream and sheepy cake. My sister had the funniest comment of the night when she said "The frosting was a really sweet so I had to shear my sheep." LOL

My father, who just loves to tease people had a blast putting marshmallows under the large sheep's eyes for tears and under his nose for umm...well...you know.

Good times, good times!

Happy Birthday my precious child.....baaaaaaa

Mom