Spring Fever!

Note: For those of you who have the opposite of Spring Fever, that being Cabin Fever, I suggest you either read this post later when you are experiencing Spring Fever for yourself, or sit down and make sure you aren't holding anything that can be thrown at the computer screen.

With that out of the way... Spring Fever has sprung in our house. Along with it, warm walks in the sunshine, a bit of spring cleaning (yes, really!), and the kids' favorite... nature walks!
Monday was one of those nature walk days. The kids and I had Kindermusik in the morning, and then we grabbed some lunch and hit the park looking for signs of spring. And oh boy did we find them! Some of them even found us, such as the bee that decided to land on Drew's hand. I have no doubt that bee and his friends were daring eachother to see who could freak a human out first. This bee won, hands down. Drew's screams could be heard across the park, and even had a few passersby wondering why this little boy was running in a circle screaming and flailing his arms about. Louisa and I just kinda casually looked away.... you know, like we didn't know him.
We also saw a bluebird, which I mistakenly called a blue"jay", and was promptly told that "bluejays are winter birds, Mom! This is a blue"bird" which is not a winter bird so that means it's a sign of spring!"
Oh, ya. I knew that! Really, I did!
As we walked and ate our lunch and stopped to play at the very muddy playground, Drew asked me a good question. He wanted to know if Mud was a sign of spring. Well, I'm not sure. I guess in a way it could be. In the south we have mud all year long, but in the north in wintertime the ground is usually too frozen for actual "mud" (except for the occasional winter thaw where the large piles of snow melt rapidly and mud becomes a bit of a problem).
We continued our walk and found small flowers, dandelions, tadpoles in the stream that wound it's way through the park, as well as leaf buds on a lot of the trees. Every year the kids and I take our spring walk and count all the signs of spring. It's funny to be doing it so early this year, though!
Here are some fun, springy pictures I took the other day, and again, if you're suffering from a severe case of Cabin Fever, you might not want to look.

{Peek-a-boo! Anyone home? Louisa is checking out an "animal habitat"}

{Hunter is enjoying looking at all the little flowers that are growing on the bank of this stream}

{"I did it!" Drew scaled the 15 foot mountain replica all by himself.}

{My All-American kids hanging out on a tank, of course!}