MIA and Bird "Cakes"

I have definitely been missing in action for the past couple of months.

There are several reasons for that:

1.  I had a bad headache that just wouldn't leave me alone,

2.  Christmas (need I say more??),

3.  I just needed more time to get some important things done around my house,

4.   and I just needed to focus on my family.

Now, I am ready to have fun blogging again . . .

I decided to start with a repost from last January because Caroline and I made these fun bird cakes again today.

Enjoy! and I will see you again real soon!!

Caroline has so much fun watching this squirrel eat from her bird feeder. She wanted me to take this picture because she just loves how he hangs on with his little feet.

Since Caroline likes watching her new bird feeder so closely (thanks Uncle Steve, Auntie Becca, and family!) we checked a book out at the library called Birds in Your Backyard by Barbara Herkert. I think it was written especially for Caroline. :) It gives so many cool ideas about how to attract and identify birds and the illustrations are beautiful. Today, we made a recipe for little "cakes" to feed the birds.

First, you hollow out oranges. We hollowed out 2 to make 4 cakes. (we used a grapefruit spoon to do this)

Then, we mixed the following in a bowl:

1 cup of bird seed

1/2 cup melted vegetable shortening

1/2 cup chunky peanut butter (Caroline insisted on making homemade peanut butter . . .nothing but the best for the birds!)

Last, we scooped it into the hollowed out oranges and . . . voila!!

Don't they look yummy?

We put one outside and waited and waited for the birds to come, but they must have seen us. After a while, we looked and . . . the whole thing was gone! That pesky squirrel. :) That'll feed him for the rest of the winter.

Oh, I tried to get Luke involved in the project, but he was perfectly happy playing Jake's Nintendo DS. :)