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Lemonade, Gingerbread and the Birds

January 5, 2015 By Shelley Leave a Comment

Creating a Ginger Bird Village

When Life Gives You Lemons…

You know how the saying goes right?

I bought a few of those gingerbread house and tree kits before Christmas.

The ones that come pre-baked with all of the fun stuff you need to create a candyland kind of gingerbread village.

I had visions of working on them with the peeps between the holidays.

I figured I would have to buy a few more types of candy and make extra frosting for us to be able to create true masterpieces.

Then I got home and opened them…

Missing pieces of roof, misshapen walls, and a general mess all the way around.

Bummer!

Here Comes the Lemonade

We had to get to Christmas Eve mass a full hour before it started to get seats together for our crew/extended family.

During the wait, Meg and I were discussing the gingerbread situation.

With the wisdom of a six year old, she simply said we should just find something else to do with them.

(Yes! She always looks on the sunny side of things!)

And she was right.

What else could we do with our broken up gingerbread village?

Hmmmm…. we pondered the question while we were waiting.

Watching Wild

We are a nature loving crew. My parents live in a lovely part of Michigan where they have woods, a pond and loads of beautiful gardens they are always working in during summer months. Besides the domestic critters that live there (horses, dogs, kittens),  it is also a haven for deer, racoons, bunnies, birds, squirrels, fish, turkeys and even the occasional (yikes!) coyote.

So much so that my Dad and I both signed up to be Climate Ambassadors for the Nature Abounds program, Watch the Wild.

Food for Flight

What Meg and I decided to do that night in church was create a gingerbread village for the birds at my parent’s house.

Because I didn’t want to take a chance on poisoning any of our feathered friends, I spent some time researching what birds can and can’t eat. In case you are wondering, check out Feeding Backyard Birds and Things That Are Toxic for Birds.

 Turns out peanut butter can be a good source of winter protein for birds.

I was also surprised to learn you shouldn’t feed bread to the birds. It fills them up on empty calories – no nutritional value!

In addition to our favorite bird seed, I bought an extra jar of peanut butter and some shredded wheat to use for “siding” on the house!

Supplies for Ginger Bird Village

So while its not the masterpiece village I had in mind when I bought these kits, it turned out to be something even better.

Food for a few of our favorite friends!

Gingerbread Trees for the Birds

Gingerbread Bird House

As soon as it stops sleeting, we’ll be packing things up to take to my parents’ home for all their feathered visitors to enjoy!

I will try to get some photos of the birds enjoying our masterpiece!

If you have a nature lover in your life, please feel free to share this post with them!

It is a fun way to spend an afternoon.

XO

Shelley

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Hi there, I’m Shelley!

The Meaning Behind Roots North and South This blog reflects my love of the "North" and all things "Great Lakes" that comes from my dear little Mother's side of the family. It also pays tribute to all ... [ Read More ]

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