Spring has finally hit!! The snow is melting more everyday and the last 2 days it's has rained, either all day or on and off all day. This morning the sun came out for a bit in between rain showers and I put R down for her morning nap, and the children and I went outside. A-Walk-A-Bout. We bought a SLOW!! CHILDREN PLAYING sign awhile ago. I grabbed some nails, found a hammer and we headed down the driveway to nail it up. ( First I added, in permanent marker, PLEASE DRIVE above the SLOW. Papa and a friend of ours get a real kick out of these signs and when I bought it Papa made the crack. "What you think MY children are SLOW??' Chortling away.) After I dealt with business, and the kids stomped about in the puddles and mini rivers, we checked out the 'worm trails' in the mud and puddles. We even found a few 'cool' worms which is a HUGE improvement from last year as worms were 'gross and slimy'. J even picked one up!! We saw a swimming worm, traveling worm and a attacking worm (One of the ones that J picked up wiggled and 'attacked' him :). The we headed across the front of our property marveling at the ditches full of water. Throwing rocks and mud balls in the water and generally having a great time. J has a good arm on him and can really huck those rocks. L threw a few but had more fun watching J and E and keeping his crab toy safe. E throws like a girl but hopeful it's the age. She missed the water as often as she hit it. We found some clover growing and some tiny little somethings growing. We stopped and checked out how deep the water was and saw thousands of tiny black things wiggling and swimming in the water. I suspect they are mosquitoes.. but hoping NOT. We saw a tiny beetle who promptly hid and then scurried and hid again. Then we headed back to the driveway to see the ant hills and bulbs pushing through the soil there and play some more in the puddles and mini rivers. I used my boot heel to open up some of the rivers so the puddles would drain and smiled at E who started dragging her boot heels around in the puddles. By this time I was 'guarding' the crab and L was racing with J. Here and there and everywhere. I think L and I where the only ones with dry boots. We both had rubber boots on and E and J were still in winter boots. Then we picked up the hammer and some garbage we'd found and headed in. I cleared the sandbox cover of water and 3 kids piled in so fast I barely had time to see the sand. I kicked the rest of the snow on the trampoline around and hopefully it will melt off soon.They can already jump on it. I walked over the whole garden patch kicking snow. (it melts faster if you disturb it) The sheep, Forrest and Snowball, got make shift collars on them just to see if they fit and so I can catch them. J wanted to 'go exploring' so we headed off to the back to kick the remaining piles of snow and marvel at the large amounts of clover shooting up where ever the snow is gone. The sheep came with and nibbled on the poplar sprouts and I SMILED (those little trees are why I wanted sheep). Bindy, our cow, called and called to the sheep until they got curious and went over then she threw up her head and chased them away. Crazy beast. She'd better get used to them they're going to be around for a while. The boys found a old haunt of the children's and climbed the hill to go explore it again. E climbed half way up and got her hands dirty and bawled til I got there to wipe them off. Strange behavior for her and I'm hoping it doesn't last long. She also went to pick up a rock, EEEKED, and dropped it screaming "BUG BUG. Tiny little BUG on it!!" Until the boys went to 'go see' and then no one could find it. She is leery of the sheep as well. Which doesn't surprise me at all as they are as big as she is. Forrest might weigh more then E. They jumped on her a few times a couple of weeks ago and that totally put her off. They no longer jump up but she still avoids them. I also headed out to the back shed to find the box of rubber boots. Found it and got everyone in boots. Warm and dry feet here we come. Well maybe.
And can you believe it. I forgot my camera and didn't take a single picture of my kids in matching hats and red coats playing in the spring sunshine. Oh well there is always next time.
