Hello Spring, Is That You?

You know it's been a while when your own blog asks you to sign in with a user name and password- eek! Well better late than not at all, right? After a looooooooooooong winter, spring is finally starting to peek and push it's way up through the snow (we had an insane blizzard about a week ago and until yesterday there were still a few random patches of snow on the ground).

Last September, as a chill in the air arrived, I began to explain the concept of seasons to my little bean. At first it seemed to be a bit too abstract for her, but slowly, slowly she's come to understand the concept. And in the process, we've had a lot of fun observing and talking about the change in weather and our surroundings. Watching the world through the eyes of a 3 year old is magical, isn't it?

Walking home the other day, I noticed that the trees on our block were budding and some bulbs were starting to emerge. The next day I came up with this idea. I've talked about nature walks before, but this time we made it more of a nature hunt. We headed out with a mission- to look for signs of Spring! As we strolled all the way around our block, it was thrilling to find all the bits of green poking out of the ground and led to such rich conversation about squirrels and flowers and summertime (oh yeah!). Whether you live in a city, a suburb or the country, taking the time to go outside and look for spring is a wonderful way to spend an afternoon and welcome the coming season.

And for you poor soles who are still deep in the doldrums of winter, here's an eensie for you too. Snow ice cream!!! When we were housebound during that crazy blizzard, we invited some neighborhood friends over and whipped up this tasty treat. Step one, scoop up some fresh, untouched snow. Step two, put it in a bowl and top with Sweetened Condensed Milk (fortunately, I have a bad habit of always having a can of this stuff around). Step three, dig in! Things being the way they are environmentally, I wouldn't go doing this often. But for a special once a year treat your kids will remember for a lifetime, this is it! It's freaking delicious!!!