Abby and Neil drove up from Chicago for Easter dinner, and we had talked about going out somewhere for dinner. But I decided that a ham dinner is really pretty easy to make, and I figured that places that were open for Easter would probably be very busy. So I decided to cook a meal. Well, I learned that trying to buy a ham on the evening before Easter is pretty much impossible. So we made do with ham steaks---worked out well. It also seemed that everyone else in Brookfield was going to have the hash brown potato casserole for dinner, because there were also no frozen hash browns to be had. So I substituted potatoes O'Brien, and they made for a very tasty potato dish. I may just use them again the next time I make that casserole.
It was just the four of us for dinner, but Lew and JoAnne came over for dessert later and we had birthday cake. No home-baked birthday cake for Bob this year--I managed to put together the Easter dinner, but decided to get a cake at the Metro Market bakery.
It's been kind of a strange spring here in Wisconsin. I had thought that we would probably completely miss our daffodils while we were gone, but they weren't anywhere close to blooming yet when we got back. All the spring flowers were late bloomers and the trees were slow to get their leaves as well.
We have really enjoyed watching all the bird activity in our back yard this spring. I had heard people talk about putting oranges and grape jelly out to attract Baltimore Orioles, so I thought I'd give that a try this year. I found a special feeder that holds half an orange and also has little indentations for the jelly. (I used strawberry instead of grape and it obviously was satisfactory to the orioles.)
We got very excited at the first sighting of an oriole, but after a while it became pretty commonplace. At one point we had a pair, a male and a female, on the feeder at the same time. And another time there were two males, and they sort of took turns at the feeder. One would eat while the other perched on the evergreen next to the feeder.
So, we certainly have not turned into full-fledged "birders," and we don't have any "birding" trips planned. But we do enjoy watching our local birds from the kitchen and dining room windows. We also have uninvited guests at our feeders now and then. The deer like to come around and empty one of the feeders by tipping it sideways. And there are also some acrobatic squirrels that will hang up-side-down on the feeder to eat. And it takes more than a knock on the window to discourage them!
I just realized that I have actually written a blog post with no pictures of grandchildren! Can you believe it? I hope they don't take away my Grandma credentials! Don't worry, it probably won't happen again. :)
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