Spring May Have Just Sprung

According to the yard, spring has arrived! Daffodils - the only flower our deer don't eat - are up all over the woods and in the straight garden under the kitchen window. We get three color varieties, yellow, white, and white with orange inner parts.

All three colors come in regular size and a dwarf size. Colors mix in the same clump, but size is strictly segregated. This year we have several yellow dwarf clumps in the middle of the lawn, where we haven't seen them before. They're too far away from all the other clumps for me to believe they're the product of bulb spreading...I wonder who's been working on the plantings? No matter, really, any flower the deer won't eat is a treasure around here.

Chris swept off the front porch and raked some of the yard. The kids have a friend over for the afternoon and have been alternately playing hockey and in the woods. I made rice krispy treats, next weeks' menu and a shopping list. There's not much on the list since but I haven't decided if I'll try to shop this afternoon or wait until the evening. I have to go before tomorrow - we're nearly out of milk.

After hockey this morning and lunch, the kids dashed out to the yard in shirtsleeves and have only been in for snack since. Lars immediately scaled the cottage roof, something he's been doing for years. This is the first year I have not been secretly terrified that he'd fall off, and I'm not yet worried that he'll collapse it. This peaceful feeling is strange and I hope it's the start of feeling like a mother of "kids" instead of "small kids" (rather than a calm-before-the-storm sort of warning omen). Between the cottage and climbing the trees, we'll be lucky to get through the summer without any broken bones. We do issue warnings and plead for caution but are not silly enough to think our requests mean the kids will not climb around. We keep the Bactine and band-aids handy and make sure our health insurance is up-to-date. If today is any indication, it's going to be a great spring (finally!).