Happy Bird-day!!

Today the kids and I made treats for the birds.  And when I told Hunter what we were going to do he asked "is it for their birthday?" so I said "well sort of, it's bird-day." ha ha.  This is something I've been wanting to do for a long time but I could not fine pine cones that were unscented.  Someone at church donated some pre-made popcorn balls to the youth group and I thought, "hey that could work."  So today we made bird-day treats, and when I say "we" I mean I did most of it while the kids licked inordinate amounts of peanut butter (and I'm pretty sure a good amount of birdseed) off their fingers.  They thought it was totally cool, and it was.  So far no birds have had any but we watched a squirrel try to get at them for a long time.  I am a bird lover so I am automatically a squirrel hater because they are always stealing the bird seed, but the kids thought that he was really funny.  It was sort of fun watching him trying to r-e-a-c-h to get a seed ball (I had purposely tied them so squirrels couldn't get at them).  He tried standing on one but it was not sturdy enough.  For a while he managed to get a paw on one then he would lick his paw off, finally he managed to break it off and ran off with it, but he hasn't been back so hopefully some birds will get the other two seed balls.

Here you can sort of make out the progression of seed balls hanging on the tree, squirrel trying to get seed balls and squirrel succeeding and upsconding with said seed ball.

How to make a bird-day (or squirrel) treat
1. Buy or make popcorn balls (I suggest buying them) or if your lucky enough to have pine cones that
    will work.
2. Take a small crochet hook and tie a long piece of kite string to the hook.
3. Push the crochet hook through the ball so that the head goes through last catching and pulling the
    string through with it.
4. Untie the string from the hook
5. Roll the popcorn ball in cheap peanut butter (you'll want a pretty thick coat)
6. Then roll the peanut buttery popcorn ball on a plate filled with birdseed.
7. Tie the ball outside on a branch far enough down so that evil squirrels can't reach it.

I found a small bag of birdseed at wal-mart for one dollar so it was a pretty cheap and fun "craft" to do with the kids but honestly I would have done it even if I didn't have kids this is something I've always thought would be fun, plus I love birds.