Our Favorite Spring Family Activities

Dear Spring, We're ready for you!

Ok, so we're still getting smatterings of snow.  But, we do get a glorious day or two a week, so the snow has GOT TO let up soon, doesn't it?  I like to say that summer and autumn are my favorite seasons, tied, but of course they are followed by spring.  Winter doesn't make the list, unfortunately.  I am that passionately against winter and the doldrums, the stir craziness, and the general malaise it produces.  I am also against winter because despite our regular commitment to eating healthfully, taking our vitamins, exercising and getting rest, our house spends the entirety of winter SICK.

I don't know about you, but that's enough to send me to wackaloon land.

On the days that the weather is mild and glorious, we celebrate joyfully! We take a few walks a day, check out the park to see if the mud is starting to dry, work on our garden plans, and get ready for summer.  Of course, we tackle art projects, baking, spring cleaning, and airing the house out voraciously too.  If I had to narrow it down to 5 things we love to do during the spring, the list would include:

-PLANNING! Daydreaming about trips, picnics, tea parties, gardens, it's really never ending.  We love planning all the fun in the sun we're going to have, even my formerly winter obsessed husband gets into it.  This year, our daughter has been super involved with helping plan our garden beds and other fun summer projects.

-Flowers!  Tulips, crocuses, daffodils, they all make it to our house weekly for bouquets throughout.  Really, nothing makes me smile more when I'm still rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, to see a vase of daffodils smiling at me while I make breakfast every morning.

-This spring, in particular has been all about welcoming lots of new babies for friends and family.  Nolan and the kids pitch in to help make cards and crafts while I knit toys, blankets, and hats for new babes.  Nothing makes me think of spring more than holding a brand new baby contentedly.

-Walks, walks, and more walks.  We take the dog out for his two requisite walks a day and they are enjoyable now!  We wander our yard and do yard work (maybe my kids are strange but they LOVE this stuff).  We head over to the river to see how swollen it is, check out trees, flowers, and baby grass.  WE go for walks just to feel the sunshine!

-Unsurprisingly, we bake and paint stuff that's spring time related.  Sugar cookies shaped like flowers, crafts that are nature/science projects, paint pictures of things we see on our walks or paint our daydreams about late spring and summer.  We're that artsy family whose kids have their bedroom walls plastered in their artwork.

But most of all, I just love waking up to sunlight smiling at me through the windows, and breathing fresh, clean new air.  What does your family love about spring?