March...is marching on.

Well, March has come and gone. Both seemingly, as a lion, I might add. We have been busy cleaning and organizing inside, belatedly picking out seeds from a seed catalogue, and taking steps to ready our yard for future growing possibilities. We also baked cookies, played dress-up, put on a dance show, swam in the tub, and took as many walks as the weather would allow.  We had lovely visits from family and friends, saw snow and sun, learned the letters "J, D, and P" and camped out in the trenches of potty training. Perhaps that should read, camped out in front of either the bathroom or the washing machine.  How did you spend your March?

This giant pine was behind our home, next to our garden. It was removed, along with three other trees on our property. Although it was sad for all of us to have them taken out, we have plans for garden expansion and perhaps a few fruit trees. The latter was the only acceptable reason to the girls to take the trees out. They have declared that they each have enough savings to buy a tree of their own, a pear tree for Mathea and a plum tree for Mairi.

Limbed.

Down. Amazing what light came into my office window. And how many unnoticed cobwebs there were!

These little guys were in a nest at the top of this pine. The workers were able to keep the nest intact and not handle the babies, and after a few hours the mother squirrel returned and carried them off to a quickly made new home (sorry mama!)

After asking for french braids, she couldn't resist decorating the rest of her hair. Complete with a scrap of fabric used for a doll towel. She went to school this way.

Swimming in the tub. What else to do when you want it to be spring and it insists on snowing? Oh, I know, here are a few other ideas...

Have a dance party with your sister!  She put this ensemble together on her own, black boots and all.

Inhale tulips. The very essence of spring. Enjoy them. Love them. Sing to them. Bandage their leaves when torn accidentally.  Make them the best 6 dollars mom ever spent.

And make cookies. Chocolate cookies. The kind where little girls are allowed to lick the batter bowl clean. Twice.

And on days when the sunshine and wind allow, take a walk to the local park.  Bring a friend! 

Imagining

We spend a lot of time imagining in our family.  The house is usually full of galloping horses, talkative puppies, painters, sculpters, chefs, storytellers, dancers, and yes, even princesses. We daydream of owning fish (more, different, and definitely some in Mattie's room), rabbits, chickens, horses (a frequent request really) and growing a beautiful and bountiful garden, of knitting something more complicated than a garter stitch scarf, of seeing a rare bird (or any bird these days). 

And right now, especially, we are daydreaming of spring. 

Here are a few of our week's imaginings...

A fairy out for a walk with her magic wand (an unsharpened pencil with an extra eraser on the wrong end).

Ice skating in the kiddie pool.

Being a grown-up. After finding some felted sweaters for crafting, she decided they were the perfect "old" clothes. And in fact, coupled with her present outfit of dress, tights, and sandals, did indeed make one wonder. Or reminisce. In any event, she was quite excited to be a "grown-up."

Dressing up not just as grown-ups, but as a grandma and grandpa. They were in this together.

Seriously playing grandpa. She found a "boy" voice and put a play cell phone in her pocket. However, minutes later, when she stood up and discovered her shirt was so long she had to waddle, she decided playing a penguin was much more fun (to the dismay of the grandma.)

Rye, trying to escape the confines of our garden...and winter.

Bulbs, imagining it is spring.

Just as we are trying to imagine we are done with winter. (The girls decided they were done with snow and tried to kick down the snow man.  I drew the line at a bucket of hot water.)

Happy daydreaming to you!