wildlife invasion

the picture doesn't really how capture how large a turtle this was that wandered into our yard today. matt called me to come and see something (i was laying in bed for the first time all weekend - during the day time anyway - so i was pretty slow in getting up). it was over a foot long and maggie was sniffing away at it and jumping back a little every time because she wasn't sure what it was. we ended up putting her inside just to make sure she didn't get a snap on the nose.

matt carried each kid out to have a look but wouldn't put them down and wouldn't get too close. i was watching from the deck and reminded him that it was a turtle. they aren't fast and they can't jump. he still didnt want to risk it.

while we were checking out the turtle, a robin baby jumped from the nest under the deck! it made a wobbling flight across our yard and over to a tree where another robin was with some food in its mouth. we are pretty sure that it was the mommy robin because it often hangs out over there and came over to the baby bird right away. the real shocker of this story is that we (read: matt) have had to clear away 6 - yes, 6 - dead baby birds from that nest already! and there were at least two still in there. crazy.

the kids are enjoying all the critters around here - muskrats, groundhogs, frogs, turtles, robins, ducks, geese, deer, cats etc. there have been no shortage of animals to see from our back deck.