Spring is springing!

...and the birds are singing and the bees are buzzing all around! (Never enough Winnie the Pooh, it seems!) But seriously, today I finally took down those winter decorations and put up the spring decorations--flowers and whatnot. I must confess, that my winter decor did include a few strands of lights, and while it might have been rather redneck of me to keep lights around for so long, I found it necessary to combat the dreary blahs of winter. I am hopeful that they will not be necessary any longer. Besides that, allergy season is picking up, so I had to remove some dust that couldn't otherwise have been removed in order to alleviate some of the symptoms.

Samuel is most excited today also. He discovered that the frog he entertained about a fortnight ago (the one who would sing to him when he pet her) has left him a dear present! There are several little tadpoles swimming in his sandbox (that isn't really a sandbox anymore, but a puddle, due to all the sand cakes Shiphrah made last summer.) Samuel is quite delighted and is refraining from pretending they are fish. This is a great feat, since he is aching to try out his new fishing pole...made of a stick he found in the woods and some hay baling twine.

Oh, that comment I made earlier about coming to my front door to save me some embarrassment should you decide to visit? Scratch that. Samuel has dug a pond out front and there is an enormous amount of mud if you go that route. While I did clean off my back porch and de-mudded my utility room yesterday, you probably wouldn't know it today. So, if you visit, I'll be embarrassed by the mess no matter which door you choose to use, but am okay with that because my kids are having so much fun. Maybe my spring decor will cause you to forget the mud!

Shiphrah has taken her "coyote" (which is really a deer, a gift from Aunt Deborah and Uncle Paul) into the great outdoors to explore. The coyote seems to be enjoying it. Our doe, Jill, who will be the first to kid, is becoming quite motherly already, and gave the "coyote" some affectionate licks and nudges today. I would chalk this up to plain ol' goat curiosity, but being a mom myself, the tenderness she exhibited did not escape me. Very cute.

I still have a few windows to open (and all of them to clean!) so will get going. Happy spring!