Spring time....for the Brown family.....in Spooookane.

Bonus points if you get the reference in the title.  If you don't, either I'm terrible at making movie references or you don't know hilarious Mel Brooks movies with Will Ferrell!

I'm feeling extra saucy this evening because Mary-Beth got us on a ROLL!!!  After 9 days with no donations, we had 1 yesterday and now 5 today!  We are nearly half way to our goal now thanks to.....

The Dixons

Helen

Brooke

Louise

and Eileen!!!

Thank you ALL for your donations!  We love each and every one of you.  This blog post is for you all.  It's a celebration of spring (thus the post title).  

Metaphorically speaking, it's a celebration of life!

So what you're going to see on this post is a lot of life.  Being our first spring in Spokane, we know our yard would be popping with all kinds of flowers but had no clue it was going to be SO full of life.  Besides all of the awesome colors, we couldn't believe how many different birds visited us.  This post highlights just some of the birds and beauty that filled our yard last April and May.

First up, the quail.  One of the funniest birds I've ever seen.  They don't like to fly much so if at all possible, they'll lean forward and stick their head out and.....RUN!  It's so funny to see.

More colors and beauty.

Right outside our dining room window is this crab apple tree.  So we could get a good view of the hummingbirds, we put a feeder right there.  Worked out awesome!

Giant bumblebee in the crab apple tree.

Different plants blooming throughout the spring with all kinds of colors.

Our house. :)

Let the parade of hummingbirds begin.  We probably have over 100 pictures of these guys.  They were so much fun to watch and photograph.  The girls couldn't get enough of them either.

A few experiments with different herbs growing in mason jars with the garden gnome watching.

Another project was homemade bird feeders made from milk cartons and dowel rods.  Notice the yellow bird in the feeder.

Saw plenty of large birds of prey overhead too including a few bald eagles!

The girls had a hard time not chasing the quails.  They fenced this guy before it finally flew away.

Red bird camouflaged in one of our bushes.

Quail getting closer.

Warm enough for some water hijinks!

Only thing scarier than the picture above....is pictured below.  Holy cow the yellow jackets got bad this year.  

Again, tons of pics of the hummingbirds.  These were a few good ones taken from our dining room window. 

One, Two, Three, Four.... I declare....

a THUMB WAR!!!

Cute Katy....

Not...quite...as cute.

Playing some card games with the girls or as I like to call it "Who's Got Crabs?"

Teeth just started flying out of these kids mouths.  I believe this was a bump 

followed by full-on freaking out.

I was having so much fun taking pics of hummingbirds, I decided to dig out the remote for the camera to set up the tripod and get some close-up shots.

Had to test the range first.

Now for some extreme close-ups!!

I hope you all think this post was worthy of all of the donations we received today.  

Thank you again for ALL of your donations.

Just a little note...even though our team page says we only have a few days left until we walk, 

we are continuing to raise money until May 13!!  Of course we're going to encourage you to donate early and often, but you do have a couple of more weeks to get those donations in.  

That being said... who's next??

Faith....

That's what I have...faith!  I have faith in all of you.  Every year, Lisa and I stress about whether we're going to make our goal or not, how we could do things differently, should we change things up??  This year has been one of slowest starts which of course has us asking ourselves those questions.

I admit though, it doesn't matter.  We'll push.  We'll ask of our friends and family to give.  Some will.  A lot won't.  But it's all okay because we're just giving YOU the opportunity.  We're providing YOU with an opportunity to support a cause that we believe in.  It doesn't matter if we raise $10 or $10,000...it's all about you!

Today, it's all about MARY-BETH!!!!  Thank you for getting us back on track!!

Tonight (thanks to the amazing MB!), we finish up our trip to the Carolinas.  A few hours later, we were dancing the night away!  See evidence below with BFF Sam and Lisa.

The girls being introduced to the party.

I'll admit it's still weird for me to just sit back and watch the girls do their thing.  Sometimes they are growing up just a bit too fast. 

Kim's entrance to the party.  

First dance and the girls couldn't take their eyes off Kim.

Sharing some pictures with Nate and Kim that they may have not seen yet.  

The girls are pretty cute too.  

I know I already said it but Kim was amazing!  It's HER day but she still was so patient with the girls....always stopping to listen to them or give them a hug.

 You're going to make a great Mom, Kim!!

Time to get my dance on!

Dancing....then we ...danced.  After that, we .....danced!

While Sam and I documented the festivities.

All the ladies want to do is DANCE!!! 

First time we'd seen Sam since we moved in August and Sam still holds a very

 special place in their heart.

Speaking of special...who's this bald dude Lisa's all cuddled up with on the dance floor?!!  

SHOUT!!!  

Look at that hair!!

 

...a little bit quieter now...

...a little bit quieter now.......

Girls found someone else that would dance with them.

Time for the toast.  Sorry Nate but I had a hard time finding a picture where you weren't making a crazy face.  The is the best I could do.

I was showing the girls this picture.  Katy says "DID I EAT THAT CAKE?!!!!"

Waiting patiently for their turn.....

Hey girls, where's your cake??

Oh I'm so happy now!!!!

"Daddy, what should we do now???"

DANCE!!!!!

Sam and I ..... doing....something.

And I'll finish this off with a great pic of me and one of my girls!  

 Thank you again Nate and Kim for letting us be a part of your special day.  You are amazing friends and we can't wait to see you again soon!!

And thank YOU Mary-Beth for getting us back on track.  We always tread that delicate line of wanting to ask and remind folks to donate without being obnoxious.  Thank you for thinking of us and supporting March of Dimes!  You ROCK!!