The birds

 A couple of weeks ago, the robins left the nest by our front door. We're not sure why they consider the front door a good place to nest, but they have the last few years. We realized the nest started to change. 

 We put the camera up to see if new birds had moved in. They had. We saw five eggs. Unfortunately, when I downloaded the images onto my computer, I couldn't find this one until after we took the next image. 

 The following day, I had my husband take another photo and this time the nest had six eggs. 

 Here is the progression of the nest. The birds started building over the robin's nest. 

 Then the nest turned into a mass of dried grass, leaves, bits of cotton, and some feathers. The night after we took this image, we had a storm and the wind blew away most of the materials. 

 The birds had started to build again, but we could see the original robin's nest on our light fixture. 

This is a horribly blurry image because we took one quick photo as to not upset the parents too badly. If you look hard, you can see two baby birds. One has his head on top of the other. One has his head on the egg on the right and then the sibling has his head over this guys body. 

We're not sure why the birds think it is a good idea to nest by our front door. It has to be a stressful situation for the birds because the front door is a busy place. We need to do something to discourage the birds from building there. We don't want the babies stressed every time we have a visitor or the mail is delivered. 

Our crafting (not crafty) cats

 I find it adorable and, at times, frustrating that our cats enjoy crafting. I made a quilt that I wanted to tie the layers together. I placed it on the table to start my project.

 Lathandar was the first to join me. He wanted to test the quality of the quilt and be near the action. He is a very sweet cat. He was able to stay until I had to move the quilt so I put him down with a treat. We adopted him and his brother, Vex, in the spring of 2002. They are 13 years old. 

 Then Mystique joined me. She can't resist any type of string. She was adopted in fall of 2007. She is seven years old and very playful. 

Then she got bored and had to test the quality of the quilt. I let her stay until I had to move the quilt again. Then I placed her on the floor with a treat.

 Don't tell the cats but their treats are dry kibble placed in canning jars, which we believe to be more nutritious and more economical than treats. It is the same as what is in the gravity dish, but they come running when we shake the jar. We keep a jar at the desk for when they help with crafting. We keep another jar near our bed for when the cats ask for late night snacks. 

Helpful hint to parents of fur babies. Don't feed the little ones in bed unless you want to start a late night snack habit for them. If you do, then keep jars of something yummy at the ready. 

Cats claim everything

I placed a clean bath towel on the table and walked away for less than a minute. I returned to this.