Kelly has a dear friend whose Mother lets her pick her own party themes.  No editing.  No suggestions.  Free Willy Party Planning.  It’s quite liberating actually.  2 summers ago you may remember this young lady’s brother also chose his own 4th Birthday Party theme: the Lowcountry Lobster Boil.  I.am.never.bored.

Kelly’s friend, whom I call Miss. E., wanted a “Bald Eagle and Flamingo Party”.  WHY NOT, I ask you?! Challenge me Miss E.! My Bald Eagle has the appearance of running, which is not what I had intended, but I like it.  It gives it a more kid-like quality, and less of a one dollar bill likeness.  But wait, that’s only half of the party:

After the Cinderella bag, I’m quickly learning that shortening my applique stitch maintains the level of detail I’m trying to achieve.  I can say these birds aren’t going anywhere after I stitched them on.  Thank heavens Scholastic had another warehouse sale; I needed some fresh supplies for my book bags.  “Chester’s Way“, “Duck At The Door“, “Library Mouse“…books that I love so very much.  I get so excited when I tuck treasures into these bags!

The party itself was ridiculously cool.  We visited the Eagle Creek Park Ornithology Center where we viewed, very up close and personal, BIRDS OF PREY.  Awesome.

This Barred Owl (nope, not Barn…confused me too) never took his BIG ROUND EYES off of me.  Creepy in such a cool way; too bad it wasn’t October: staring at this guy made me want to carve a pumpkin and decorate for Halloween.

This Great Horned Owl blew my mind.  A) He’s huge, B) Females are actually larger, and C) Would you take a look at the size of those talons!  I’ve never been this close to a Great Horned before.  I just wanted to watch him swoop down and eat a mouse (but he was surrounded by preschoolers, so better that no swooping occurred).  I was having “Secret of NIMH” flashbacks.  I learned that owls aren’t very smart, and the reason their heads can move so far from side to side is because their eyes don’t move.  The stare makes them look intelligent, but they are not.  Sara taught everyone that the the Barn Owl actually screams like a young child.  It’s quite scary.  She then asked the Naturalist if they had any Meadowlarks in the taxidermy room, walked up to it, and started imitating its call: See-You!  See-You!  Um…yeah…we’re like, really into birds?  My Great Grandfather has a bird walk named after him…no joke…the girls’ obsession with birds must be genetic.

Interestingly as well, I always associate Red-Tailed Hawks with movie making.  It’s because whenever you hear a Bald Eagle in a movie, it’s screech is actually that of the Red-Tailed Hawk.  An Eagle’s call is rather wimpy, leaving me to wonder why we chose a bird who struggles to stay off the endangered list with a wimpy call to be our National Bird.  That being said…why do we need a National Bird?  I’m thinking if we simply had to have a symbolic bird, we should have gone with something hardy and scrappy, like the pigeon.  Much like Americans, that bird will eat anything. The Pigeon is an opportunist!  What’s more American than that?

What book bag will follow this one?  I anxiously await the invitations, always wondering what free clip art I’ll be downloading next…stay tuned…