Spring Has Sprung!

Despite a thankfully mild cold snap, spring has definitely sprung around here. The daffodils have already come and gone, and the tulips are on their way out. I wish I had gotten more pictures. I managed to lose the memory card to the camera a while back. I finally went out and bought a new one so I could take pictures of the things that are making me smile today:

I love these decorative flags

My new shoes. Casual with just a touch of bling!

Red bud trees are everywhere!

Believe it or not, there are lots of tomatoes on my patio tomato plant!

A great wave of purple flowers

The last of the tulips in our front yard

The azaleas are warming up for their big show!

The last blossom on the tulip tree

The yarn from a big knitting project. But more on that later.

Ready to garden!

With our cute rubber boots, spring rains won't slow us down!

What has made you smile today?

A Post for February

Wow, has it really been a month since I last posted? As always, the days are getting ahead of me! Is it as busy at your house as it is at mine?

It is starting to look like spring around here! There are daffodils and hyacinths popping up all over the place. While the breeze is still cold, we are experiencing warmer weather and springs rains!  We are also preparing for Easter, even though it is so late this year (April 24th). I love the little ceramic eggs that my girls colored for me:

 

I am knitting frantically for Easter now. I am making a Bunny Tail Hat from Itty-Bitty Hats for all three of my kids for their Easter pictures this year. Here is the first one:

Doodlebug models her new hat

My kids are in love with my knitting. On the Spud Says! Blog, Susan B. Anderson talked about how she  heard children were placing orders for toys from her book, Itty-Bitty Toys, as if it were a catalog. That is exactly what my kids do! They flip through all of my books and make requests. I will be a busy knitter for a very long time. Here is what I've made the last couple of weeks:

Here are the Happily-Ever-After mitts I made for myself

Here is a sweet hat I made for my little nephew. This was a pattern that I was given and I'm not sure where it came from

 

 

This Enora (named by Darling)

I love her spots!

Sleeping peacefully in a doll bed that was mine when I was a little girl

And, just for fun, here is a picture of Darling curled up in the blanket her Nana made when she was born:

 

Happy spring!

Winter Walk

The snow is almost gone now. Only a few patches are hanging on in shady spots, although they are more ice than snow now from thawing and re-freezing so many times. We enjoyed it while it lasted, though! A few days ago my mom stayed with Pumpkin while he napped so the girls and I could take a long walk through the snow. We tried to identify different animal tracks in the snow (I think we saw deer tracks!) and we tried to make different tracks ourselves. We walked to a creek not too terribly far from our house, and the girls were delighted to find that parts of it were frozen over.

Darling made what she called a "ginormous" snowball and carried it around until her mittens were wet and her hands were freezing cold. Then, of course, she whined that her hands were cold and asked me if I would please carry it! Haha!

One of the neighborhood snowmen. I love the hat!

 Our "Snow Totoro". We had just finished watching My Neighbor Totoro.

I just like this picture for some reason. The bare branches against the icy blue sky. It makes me think of winter, even more than snow

Snow!

Ahhh, a new year! What is it about the start of a new year that makes me want to make resolutions? There's something about starting over which is very appealing. We've had something very big happen here, just nine days into the new year: SNOW!

Real, actual, soft, white, beautiful snow. This is something that rarely happens in our region. We do get some cold temperatures, but usually any winter precipitation comes our way in the form of ice, not snow. If we do get any snow flurries, almost always it's less than an inch and is completely melted within a day or so. This time, we got close to 6 inches! Woot! You can't imagine how excited my children are...or maybe you can! As soon as the first flurries started to fly, Darling had to rush outside to catch some one her tongue:

I definitely see snowmen in my future. I will have to take some  pictures to post. I love winter. We have a fire burning brightly in the grate almost every day.

The kids have brightly colored hats, scarves, and coats, so cute! Doodlebug and Pumpkin were certainly mesmerized by the snowfall:

It's going to be tough to get through our morning chores today, with snow calling our names! I'm sure all the neighborhood kids will be out. The funny thing about snow in a region that is not used to it, is that the whole area shuts down. There's a run on bread and milk at the grocery store, stores and schools close, and people tend to freak out even over an inch of snow. Did anyone else get any lovely white stuff?

Multi-tasking

I was going through photos of the past year, and came across this one, which I took this past summer in my backyard. In case you can't tell, this is a picture of insect copulation. I think it sums up men nicely. Here the female carries him on her back and continues to work through it all, while he rides around, concerned with only himself. Apparently, male chauvinism is not a trait confined to Homo sapiens.