New backyard friend

It's starting to feel like Animal Kingdom around here. Woodpeckers, racoons, hummingbirds, rabbits, squirrels, fishies, the froggie, egret, great blue heron, rats, lizards.....and they'd better all stay outside!

This morning my daughter spied this woodpecker looking for bugs on our gigantic eucalyptus. I was surprise that he didn't have a red head like the ones I see around town. I've never seen one in our yard before.

At 8:30 last night (as I was so proud of myself that I blipped at 7:30 and didn't wait until bedtime) I captured a shot of our racoon family!! I have tried in vain to get a picture of these guys! It's always so dark that the camera would not take the picture. I actually got the instruction booklet out <<gasp!>> and it said to manually focus the picture....it worked, go figure. But I couldn't blip it. The lemonade stand surely wins out.

Tonight, I am staying up way too late and uploading lots of pictures to pick up at costco tomorrow. The girls are having a slumber party with 8 giggly friends and I plan to scrapbook all night! I hope to entertain them with a scavenger hunt, tie-dying pillowcases, apples-to-apples and a movie. And pizza. The boys are camping with scouts for the weekend so it's the perfect time for a girls night.