This One's For the Birds.

Hello, hello!

I cannot believe how long it's taken me to get this post up and out to you.

My apologies, I'm not ignoring you, I promise!

We've just been suuuuuper busy around here lately with painting, painting, painting and more painting! My little kiddies have been watching a lot of kiddie shows and movies lately (not that they seemed to mind one bit), while their mama and daddy attacked the walls, trim, banisters...you name it.

Eventually it will all be finished and I'll have the fun of showing you some before & after's!!!

However, last week there was a rather special holiday here in Alberta called Family Day.

I think it's one of my favorite things about living in Alberta. Daddy was away at work, but I was determined to put down the paint brushes and have a little fun with the kiddos, so we gathered up the supplies and made some bird seed ornaments to hang in the trees in our back yard. Our kids have fun watching the birds in these trees during the summer, so I thought this would be a fun project for us and maybe we would see a few of them come back.

I found a great recipe over at Saltwater Kids although hers are much prettier than ours, so you should definitely go check it out.

So first we gathered up the supplies and then paused for a picture.

Not an easy task with a near 2 & 3 year old. : )

3/4 cup flour

1/2 cup water

1 pkg. unflavored gelatin (not shown - oops)

3 Tbsp. corn syrup

4 cups birdseed

First we dumped in the flour and the water.

My perfectionistic self took a deep breath or several and let my three year old do the "dumping" and just told myself to forget about the mess. Whew...yay me!

Then the corn syrup...

And then my lil chubby cheeked almost two year old did the very important job of adding the gelatin...

Mix it all together...

Then add the birdseed and mix some more...

Maybe have a little taste test when Mommy isn't looking too.

Next I sprayed some cooking spray into a mini muffin pan.

You can really use any kind of mould you want for this, but I thought the muffin pan would be the simplest for us.

Press the seed mixture down firmly into the moulds and take another mouthful of birdseed while Mommy is busy taking pictures...

Then insert straws all the way through, wiggling them to make sure they go all the way to the bottom.

Let them dry for a few hours in the mould with the straws in place, then remove the straws and gently pry them out of the mould, flip them over and let dry for a few more hours, or overnight if you can wait that long!

I threaded some jute twine through the holes and tied them off with some knots and then we headed out into the great outdoors...otherwise known as our backyard.

Visions of birdies eating the birdseed ornaments were dancing through their heads, I'm sure.

Of course the majority of them were all hung on the bottom three branches....

The lure of the playset pulled them away eventually at which point I did a little OCD rearranging, but they haven't forgotten and every now and then we have a little peek out the window to see if there have been any takers.

We haven't seen any visitors yet, and who knows maybe it's the wrong time of year, but really...in the end that doesn't matter. We had a great time making something...messes included...and spent Family Day having fun together...just like it should be.

Next year I hope to make new ones with the kiddies to hang on the evergreens as outdoor Christmas ornaments. Stars...bells...gingerbread men...fun, fun!

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To see the other great parties I'm linking up to, click HERE!