Spring Has Sprung

Miscellaneous evidence of spring:










The boy got his first bike!















The Easter bunny came, but immediately went back to Florida because it was too darn cold.












We made these sheep out of yarn, felt, and wooden spools. Sometimes it's hard to find crafts that a 3 and 4 year old can do. These adorned our Easter dining table and nature table.












We had that enormous storm, heavy rain for two days. Our humble little brook threatened to flood into our backyard, but luckily it chose somewhere else to roam free. The picture on the right is how the brook looks in the summer with little rain, taken from the same spot as the left one.











Well, this has nothing to do with spring, but I had to share. The other day Napoleona found a little piece of uncarded sheep's wool. She was puttering around, and the next thing I knew she had dipped the wool into a glass of water, put it between two wooden blocks, and rubbed the blocks together to make felt! My crafty girl. She's not even three years old yet -- I think she's a prodigy!

This week should be about 70F every day, so we're expecting the trees to bust out some major pollen. The crocuses, snowdrops and aconite are all gone, and now we're starting on daffodils, primroses and grape hyacinths, with tulips not far behind. The maples are all flowering, as are the magnolias and forsythia. We've spotted the chipmunk that lives under our lawn, the woodchuck who lurks near our parking space, and we noticed some serious courting going on among the songbirds this afternoon. The kids were very excited to see that a blue jay pair has chosen the maple tree outside our front door for their nesting site. We also found that the edge of the brook sports several skunk cabbages, which are some of the weirdest looking plants ever.

Best of all, I can let the kids play outside for hours and hours again. No more cabin fever!