Spring Wins!!

It has clearly taken awhile, but this weekend spring finally beat out the winter and it was a gorgeous victory. Our hats off to the tenacity and determination of winter's fight, but in the end we must now salute the victor.  We had a busy romp for sure and with our socks stowed safely indoors we felt the cool moistness of the outside in almost all our activities.  Merrick and I replaced the old hops trellis with a new system and we had a great fire from the old pine.  Merrick also decided it was time to put the fear back into the squirrels and took it upon himself to set up some squirrel traps.  We did catch two, quite quickly, but it was solely a catch and release operation this weekend, a fair warning if you will.  Friday night was a lot of alternations of backyard baseball to backyard kickball until Merrick and I called it quits for the evening and Sophia headed off to the gymnastics open gym with a friend.  Her curfew more for my bedtime than concern for her making any poor judgments.  Saturday found us busy with a photo-shoot for Sophia's dance team and their upcoming recital and Merrick and I were off to get all the new year's information on soccer coaching.  We did bale a little early given the pull of such nice weather and went home to mulch all the flower beds and then head out to do some fishing.  Accompanied by our friends we tossed every bait combination we could think of including marshmallows and shrimp to entice something to bit, but in the end we were satisfied watching the clouds drift by and the warm breeze on our face and naked feet.

 

 Stilts and  whittling and plenty of spring time promises of summer to come.  Saturday night even found us in sleeping bags under the stars curled up around the camp fire.  WIth no bugs and no reason to sleep inside we figured we would just stay out there all night.  Brusier woke up about 2am and had trouble going back to sleep and my old bones were groaning at the ground so I didn't fight the idea of an actual mattress, and we headed back in.

 Sunday required an ice cream lunch for our first Zesty's trip of the new season. We then headed out for another seasonal hike.  We did come across a couple of other hikers that were very concerned for our bare feet.  The kids and I scoffed a little and figured we weren't going to have soggy muddy shoes/socks to worry about nor would we be spreading invasive species seeds all over the land scape.  The late afternoon was rounded off with some backyard reading and chess in the warmth of the sun.  Just an amazingly perfect and rejuvenating weekend....a spring cleaning for our insides if you will.

Still Snowing

 

 

As much as we love all the seasons around here, winter is starting to overstay her welcome.  We had about four inches of wet heavy snow on Tuesday and it has been a snowy/rainy mix everyday since.  Today was different only in that the snow was greater and almost blizzard like at times.  It didnt trap us inside for too long.  Sophia and I dug out some clay from the front yard that was left over from some utility work last fall in order to make room for better quality soil that we will replant grass later this spring.  Then we all hiked down towards the river/bike trail to check out a new drainage pond that is being built.  We saw an old looking bottle, that we thought Grandpa Bob might be interested in, but Sophia nearly lost a boot in the mud in an attempt to check it out.  We were all pretty muddy when we got home and had to wash and dry our shoes and jackets in preparation for the upcoming week.  Early in the week Sophia started training for a 5K run with school group.  The winterish weather had her group running indoors as well.  Dance is still going strong for her and getting closer to the big recital.  The practice and picture schedule is starting to ramp up for her.  Merrick and I us her dance time to play cards, this week we sat at the Target/Starbucks and played some blackjack over hot chocolate.  Merrick has penultimate indoor soccer week Saturday and having signed both him and Sophia up for the outdoor leagues this spring then we headed out to get new cleats and shin pads for both of them.  Sophia headed to a friend's place for a sleep over on Saturday night and Merrick and I headed to the Resch with some friends for the Gambler's last game before the playoff run.  It was a great game complete with a penalty shot late in the third period break the tie in the Gamblers favor and ultimate win.  We all headed to the Y for some swimming, but it was our shortest trip ever.  Having just gotten wet only to hear the whistle sound to clear the pool.  Apparently there was an accident that was going to shut the pool down for awhile and some super chlorination.  We chose to head home instead.  The forecast looks like more of the same for the next couple of weeks, the spring has been slow to come.

Birthday Oh Boy!

 It was a 6th birthday bash for the bruiser! We headed out to a local pizza and gaming spot and let the boys go wild.  He had a nice mix of old family friends as well as school classmates, and Merrick did an excellent job of introducing all the kids to each other.  The evening was a long one and didn't get to bed until way after the normal bedtime--but worth it when you are 6.  After gorging ourselves on pizza and singing the birthday songs we headed straight for the dessert course of ice-cream sundaes.  Gift wrapping was tossed aside to reach the prize and then we feed the ticket machines a bunch of tokens and reaped even more treasures of candy and woopie cushions.  One of Merrick's friends even came home with us for the after party, until their mother could pick them up.  I suspect Merrick was not the only one that was a little sleepy eyed this morning.