baby birds

I have baby birds again. I usually get one or two broods a year, in either of the arborvitas in my yard. I noticed the eggs a while back and have been keeping an eye on them. Sunday I came home from church to grab some stuff to take to Ron and Kathys and 2 were hatched. I checked on them again later and all were. I think there are 5... but it is awfully hard to tell. One year I thought there were 4 but when they fledged I realized there were 5. We are in our 5th spring and have peacefully cohabitated until today. My stinker child (that would be Isaac) told his neighbor friend (Sayid) to get a baby bird out of the nest. Thankfully I had gathered some trash and told Noah to take it out. I opened the door for him and told Isaac to help him... which is when Isaac comes running saying 'I have a baby bird in my hand.' Then he tried to blame Sayid. Of course, I told the kids not to tell anyone there were baby birds in the tree. I have told them that every year and so far it has worked. I told them I can't control what happens when I'm not here and I don't want anyone messing with the babies. So, then *I* had a baby bird in my hand. I thought I'd read that it isn't true that momma birds will kick a nestling out if touched by humans and boy did I hope I remembered correctly. I was scared if I put it back that it might kill all the babies, but I didn't know what else I could do... so back it went. I had Abigail stay out there with it to make sure it is left alone... came inside and took care of Isaac... and washed our hands. Abigail said the momma bird went to the nest as soon as we went inside... so that's good. The tree was damaged a bit when Sayid climbed up there to get one, but hopefully the nest will be ok. I put everything back as best I could.
Isaac can't go outside for a week. Abigail gets grounded from drawing, Noah from his football cards... Isaac from outside. I tried grounding Abigail from playing with friends until her room was clean and it never worked. She didn't care. Grounded her from drawing and she had it clean in a couple days. Noah rarely gets in trouble, but he can't stand to not be reading and organizing those cards!
Tomorrow is State Festival (contest). I wish we'd call it what relates to most people. Most people have no idea what "festival" means.... or "choral performance assessment" which State is not called b/c there is no sight reading and we have a 'Best in Class.' I'm not worried about it. I get a bit burned out by the time State rolls around and am just ready for Spring. I wish State were sooner after Region. A month is too long. I just have 2 weeks to get ready for Spring Concert after this.
I fixed a pretty good dinner considering it was totally unplanned. Nothing fancy, but made with stuff I had. I thought I had a bag of oriental chicken. I've resorted to mostly pre-cooked type stuff now that David is on Atkins... lots of chicken nuggets :/ Abigail will eat anything, but the boys are a lot pickier. I got rice going and then realized all I had was chicken nuggets and some diced cooked chicken breast that I bought mainly for salad. I had 2 little packets of soy sauce (david threw out my bottle last week b/c the lid got lost and it became overly concentrated). I cooked the diced chicken in the soy sauce and some oil, added peas, corn, carrots, sesame seeds, and garlic salt... it was really good. All the kids ate it. Had I *planned* on it I would have cooked the rice ahead of time so I could have just made fried rice. Next time!
Oh, and I'm having a girl. Based on the fact that my skin is a mess. I won't really know until the end of May, but that is becoming my guess since my skin always cleared up with the boys.