The Cleft goes WILD!!!!!

Well, I knew we were moving to the 'woods' but I had no idea just how 'wild' we'd get out here! About 2 weeks ago, the kids were outside near the lake and spotted these little baby squirrels. At first, only 1 came out of the tree. Follow the pictures below to get the whole story!

Here is the little fellow thinking about checking out the kids -

Here are the kids trying to coax him over - unbelievably, he came without much hesitation!

Wesley was definitely the most proud of this 'accomplishment' - all the kids took turns holding the poor little orphan!

Here's Jarrett holding him -

Here are the 3 musketeers - which actually turned out to be 4 after a couple of days. The kids picked pecans from the trees at the entrance, cracked them, and fed them to the babies. They really seemed to love them and the carrots they got also! We really have no idea if it was good or bad for them!!

Here are the kids on the trampoline with the squirrels . . .

Our other wildlife experience . . . about 3 weeks ago a momma goose laid eggs behind one of the trees near the trampoline. She and the daddy goose have been VERY protective of the eggs and have hissed and honked more than once at other geese, Chuck & Bowdie, and the kids when they get too close. We hope to have little goslings on the lake soon!

Other animal adventures (no pictures, sorry) - last week Bowdie walked out in the garage (which was open) to get something and lo and behold there was a baby snake right there in the driveway. He proceeded to kill the little guy and then saved him for all the kids to check out and be warned about. We can't decide if he was dangerous or not . . . then, on Friday, Amanda was walking across her yard towards our house and a snake slithered across in front of her feet. She squealed, I ran over and watched the little guy while she retrieved a shovel from her basement and did the dirty work. We later found out it was just a garden snake, but we weren't too sad to get rid of him anyway. Later on, we were sitting by the lake when our builder's son, Brendan, yells that there's a snake in the water. We really didn't believe him until we looked and, yep, just like he said, there was a snake slithering across the top of the water. He never came out, so he's still out there somewhere, but let him get on the ground and one of us girls see him and he's a GONER!!! We've also seen lots of deer the last couple of days - they seem to like the grass out in front of the Warbingtons - this is definitely a favorite of Blaine's!!! Oh the adventures!!!