Why I Oughta...

This morning, I put up the three scarecrows that we had up last year.  This will be the third year for the two 'big ones' but only the second for the first little one. I think our neighbors (and my wife!) would think I was crazy if I didn't come up with a second 'child' scarecrow to match our two kids.  I cut the lumber for the arms and body.  I also carved up the Funkin, but we didn't have time to get to the Goodwill store to buy the clothes. For the 'girl' scarecrows, I like to go with a dress that has 'buckles' on the shoulder straps like suspenders.  Makes it very easy to dress them.    Hopefully this week, we'll get to the store so we can get the other little scarecrow up before the weekend.

We hosted a fundraiser for our good friend Todd Scalzo - who is a current City Councilman for the City of Wheaton .  He's up for re-election in the spring, so he has to get his campaign started.  We were fortunate to have pretty amazing weather and a great collection of friends and supporters. This photo was taken about noon.  And...as you can see, the Babe still has her pj's on!  We had to drag her out of the thing to change and to take a not-so-productive nap. If any of our neighbors read my blog...I hope you guys don't think we're crazy.  Yes...this is the second bouncehouse that we've gotten in a month.  And...yes....that is crazy.  But....at least this one wasn't Disney Princess themed.  That's something, right?

Put down the first coat of a few colors on one of the witches.   I'm certainly not very artistic, so this is a tricky experience for me.  I'm trying to use some color but trying to keep it away from being too much like the cartoon Jesus that was re-painted recently .  

The carved apple head continues to shrivel up.  Just two days later , we're getting the eyes to skrunch up a bit.

We were sitting in my in-laws' backyard a few days ago when this bird of prey landed on their fence and had a look around.  Pretty big wingspan and HUGE talons.  We had Maisy on a leash sitting on a chair most of the afternoon.  Wonder if this hawk was checking her out as potential prey?

Just six days after I peeled and carved a little apple into a head shape , we're starting to see a little bit of 'shrunkeness'.  The rice teeth turned out pretty great, but the eyeballs aren't skrunch-ing up enough for my tastes.

The lot at the end of our block had some construction fencing erected late last week.  Looks like a new house is about to go up.  That makes the 2nd new construction home on our block in the past year.  Seems like - at least part of - the housing sector is coming around?