Homemade bird feeders

On our rides to work/school in the mornings lately, Lily has been exclaiming "Birdies!" from the backseat. I really hadn't noticed the increased number of birds until Lily pointed it out. But since they are coming back, I figured that it would be a fun project to make some old-fashioned homemade bird feeders. When I started the project tonight, Lily wasn't at all interested. When Carl took an interest, however, Lily immediately wanted to get in on the action.

First we made a special mixture of oil, nuts, cornmeal, and oats to add to a purchased bag of birdseed.

We then went to work on "painting" pine cones with peanut butter. Lily was especially into this part. No need for any outside praise though; she frequently told herself that she was doing a "great job".

The final step was rolling the painted pine cones in the seed mixture. Lily decided that rolling the cones was far too messy. So, she decided to use a spoon to coat the cones instead.

As always, Lily had her own unique take on the cones.