Riverdance

Last night Mark and I went to see Riverdance at UF. This is their farewell tour and it was wonderful! (even better because we had great seats and were able to get student tickets so they were just $10). It made me want to be back in Ireland!

Birds & Bailey

It was a quiet weekend here. Bailey turned 3 on Friday, so I made her favorite peanut butter treats. The only other news is the arrival of a blue jay to our feeders.

Waiting patiently . . . this is before they went in the oven.

Blowing out her candles with Mark . . .

Welcome to Bailey Heaven

If you've ever wondered what Heaven looks like for Bailey, the following pictures will show it all! When we got home from work yesterday there was huge box sitting on the porch. Bailey (for some reason) thinks every package that arrives is for her, so she sat shaking with excitement as I opened it. The box was filled with plastic bottles, and this is what happened. . . .






THANK YOU RACHEL!!!!

More from Arbor Day

As the final event of Arbor Day 2009 last week, Mark attended the City Commission meeting in order to receive the official Arbor Day Proclamation. The link below takes you to the City Commission Meeting. Once the video comes up click the "Jump To" pull down menu below the video. Go to "Arbor Day-January 16, 2009", and it should bring you to the part Mark is in.

http://gainesville.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=486&publish_id=&event_id=

Cupcakes

I put the new background up in honor of the awesome cupcake calendar Rachel gave me for my birthday. It has a cupcake a day, with bright colorful pictures and has the recipe on the back of each day. I made my first batch this weekend: Key Lime.

The Birds are Back in Town

This is Mrs. C. Brown.


Mark's new peanut feeder is the white one in the front. The birds seem to already like it but we haven't gotten a good picture yet.











This is a house finch, a new arrival to our feeders












Our crazy feeder contraption . . . Mark just made the white peanut feeder on the far left. After many attempts we've finally squirrel proofed the feeders! This "Advanced Pole System" is highly recommended!













Mrs. C. Brown again. She lives across the street. Mark's becoming quite the photographer.











This is one of our woodpeckers, the Red Bellied. They love the suet feeder.

The Finches have arrived!

We put out a finch feeder about a week ago with little success, but today . . . they arrived! They weren't on the finch feeder, but they were here. We had a goldfinch and a house finch! Hopefully more to come over the weekend :-)

Arbor Day 2009

Tomorrow is Arbor Day (in Florida at least). They celebrate it in January instead of April like the rest of the world because of the climate. Over the past few months Mark has been busy planning this week's celebrations around the city. Yesterday and today were the big days, so here are some pictures . . . .
These are all the banners hanging in the Thomas Center where today's celebration was held.
Another banner. . . Gainesville was named a Tree City USA by the Arbor Day Foundation. (VT got the title of Tree Campus USA this Fall). This was Gainesville's 25th Arbor Day celebration.
After the official ceremony the Four Seasons Garden Club "helped" Mark plant 2 of the 61 trees with their golden shovels. Here's a picture of Mark with all the ladies.

Mark and his co-workers working hard. Gater, Mark & Herb

A beautiful Live Oak at the Thomas Center

Emmett, Herb, Gater & Mark planting the Live Oak

A beautiful Camellia in bloom in the Thomas Center gardens

Another beautiful Camellia. . . this one should be named Peppermint Blossom

Mark's tree planting at William's Elementary. This week is full of Arbor Day celebrations so hopefully we'll have more pictures by the weekend.

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Our Silly Dog

Bailey decided she needed to help me work on the computer and Mark talk on the phone this evening . . . this is what she did!

LaChua Trail

Since the weather this weekend feels like May, we decided to head to Payne's Prairie to see the Sandhill & Whooping cranes and alligators. It was gorgeous. There were thousands of cranes, a few gators, wild horses and tons of other birds.

Then it was off to Satchel's for a late birthday lunch. We decided to order the deep dish which takes an hour to cook so we had lunch backwards . . . chocolate cake, salad, and then pizza. It was delicious!




First Course: Chocolate Cake
Second Course: Amazing Satchel's Salad (dressing on the side)
Third Course: Deep Dish ( pepperoni, mushrooms, onions & green peppers)


On our way home we passed the local vacuum store, which is known for it's message board. This was today's message:

IT'S GREAT TO BE A FLORIDA GATOR!
They're 2 for 2 BCS National Champions on my birthday :-)