What is fledging? An old fashioned swear word? Another term for hammering? No. It's the process a bird goes through in which its down feathers are replaced with real feathers for flight. My birds are halfway through this process! They are quickly changing from sunshine yellow to snow white! Here are some pictures and schtuff:

Miss Marie

Mr. Napoleon

Going for a walk

Sure is fun watching them grow! They should be fully fledged within a week! We so excited!

Boys will be boys

My nephews and their parents came to visit us for the 4th. Since Andrew and I are moving to the other side of the planet (practically) in less than a month, I made sure to take a lot of pictures.

Preston eating chicken nuggets while simultaneously doing his signature "arm waggle."

LOL.

Sweet Dallin

Aunt "Dabbie" gave them balloons when we met up at Big Jud's for dinner.

Preston is quite the little model

My cousins, Ryan, Bryce and Jaden working their way around the 1 lb burger.

Yes, the boys brought their balloons inside the restaurant. 

  

Preston and Dallin let their balloons go in the end, despite our efforts to keep them grounded.

Bye bye, balloons. 

Growing and Going

Napoleon and Marie (my little peep peeps) are getting so big. Since my last blog, they have at least doubled in size! Every morning they look bigger! It's so cool to witness their growth. They're also becoming more independent; I take them outside and they want little to do with me! They want to go do their own thing, of course, once they can't see me, they freak out. Here are some recent pictures, as well as some videos I have taken along the way:

Video footage of their first swim ever - outside!

First swim in the kiddie pool

Drying off after their swim

The bigger they get, the more work they've become! Poop everywhere! I made them a little cage outside. All it took was a reciprocating saw, a drill gun, hardware cloth, some plywood, and a little imagination. It was important that I found a cage with small enough holes that a cat couldn't squeeze its paws through, and make sure a top could be fastened to it to protect it from hawks and other predators as well. This will suffice for now. It was a little rough sticking them in the cage at first - they were panicky and kept calling out to us. I'm in the process of getting them used to being outside by themselves so they can forage for food in the grass without me having to monitor them all the time. Plus, the clean up is significantly easier. The hose gets the job done!

My nephews visited this weekend for the 4th but since a lot of us are sick we are just taking it easy. Even through it all, I'm taking good care of my duckies and enjoying every bit of it.