Is this real?!?!

We had the following indicators of spring in the last week ...

1) The snow started melting and by today was completely gone!
2) Last Wednesday the robins returned.
3) Last Thursday the daffodils, crocuses, and tulips all peeked through the mulch.
4) Last Friday I was outside without a coat, hat, or gloves.
5) This weekend we were all outdoors with only sweatshirts over our normal clothes.
6) We've been to the park probably 4 times since last Monday and today there was no snow and were no puddles; we were in heaven.
7) We set up the bike trailer tonight, put both girls in it, and took a "test ride" around the neighborhood.

Hooray! I'm sure we'll have another cold snap, but it has been so refreshing to be able to get outdoors for extended periods. I can't believe we've gone almost 4 months without weather and activities like this.



Anna has loved the change in weather, spending a fair bit of time just exploring the yard again, but we've also pulled out all of the push toys, bubbles, hide-and-seek games, etc, in the past few days.




Kate seems to be in awe of this new outdoor experience. Her favorite activity right now is to push a toy up and down the driveway (kind of reminds us of Anna's first summer). In this picture she's just sitting on her toy and watching the rest of the family, yelling happily the whole time.



Kate was pretty funny on Sunday, too, because she was definitely weirded out by grass. I would sit down about 3 feet away from her and try to get her to crawl to me. She'd make an attempt, but then get a pretty distressed look on her face as soon as her hands touched the grass. Then she'd start to whine because she just didn't know how she was going to make it to my lap :)





Before the weather turned beautiful this past weekend, we had 4 or 5 days of rain and fog so we putzed around inside quite a bit early in the week. Kate discovered that she can play the piano ...





Anna did a lot of coloring and painting; she has such concentration skills sometimes ...


And finally, we've had a few consecutive nights without humidifiers or medicine! Kate still has a bit of drainage in the mornings, but I think we can safely say that we're all healthy for the time being :)