Spring Has Sprung!

I think that there is something about hardship that causes one to be more grateful during the good times. Perhaps that is why the coming of spring feels especially wonderful this year. Here on the East Coast, winter has been shivery and snowy, wild and wooly, and l-o-n-g. (Those who are accustomed to such winters may scorn my reference to it as a hardship, but it was far more ~~wintry~~ than any I can remember.)

So we have been joyfully celebrating the impending arrival of The First Day of Spring this week.

We continued with our Spring Cleaning.

We've been working on the bookshelves...taking the books off the shelves, culling out collections, cleaning each shelf, and even rearranging and reorganizing some. (We also secretly removed some books that were hidden behind the stacks. You know, the ones that the children/grandchildren ask you to read, but ones that you can hardly bear to read because they are boring or lifeless or tedious. Like Ten Green Bottles, for example. Don't tell.)

So now we have two big boxes of books that are looking for good homes...

We enjoyed a Mother/Daughter Springtime Tea Party.

We invited some homeschooled teenage girls and their moms over for some girl time...and it was delightful. In fact, it was so delightful that I totally forgot to take any pictures until everyone had left! But we did have a lovely time of chatting and sipping tea and nibbling teatime treats and laughing and telling stories. An afternoon of refreshment. We need to do it more often.

These are some post-tea pictures...

First-Day-of-Spring Baskets were presented.

We used to do Easter baskets, but several years ago we changed plans. Resurrection Day is such a glorious beautiful day of rejoicing, that it almost seemed to trivialize the significance of the holiday to make a big deal out of chocolate bunnies and marshmallow chicks. But chocolate bunnies and marshmallow chicks are such fun, and my children had always received such treats...so Ron and I decided that, as the first day of spring is exciting and something to celebrate, and bunnies and chicks and flowers certainly represent the spring of the year, we would begin the tradition of the Spring Basket.

Here are this year's Spring Baskets (although Kati's "basket" this year is actually a new Martha Stewart batter bowl ;-)...

And then on to Rita's for (free) Italian ice...


How have you celebrated spring this week?