Celebrating spring

A wreath on the door...

Some decorations outside...

Dog torture

obligatory egg decorating

And a family party.

Spring was meant to be rainy

I woke up this morning and stretched lazily under warm blankets, enjoying the bright morning light streaming in through the south facing window in our bedroom. Seconds later, the morning still bright, and a heavy rain was pouring down. As much as I enjoyed 80 degree sunny days, this is the spring I know and have missed. Tulips dripping in a cold but nourishing rain, tree buds breaking out, clouds floating overhead, only lightly masking the brightness of the sky.

Lots of reading today, and meandering through ancient Egypt. A little math, a little map play. Shelving books at the library. Walking the dogs, creating the Book of the Dead.

Calvin is fascinated by this piece of history. He has made a Book of the Dead before, the last time we explored Ancient Egypt, but he wanted to do it again now that he has "more drawing experience."

So how about another blast from the past? From March 2011:

That car looks like a grasshopper

We had to make a trip to the airport this morning, and since that brought us more than halfway to the Henry Ford Museum, we decided it warranted a visit. We bought our tickets for the upcoming Titanic Artifacts exhibit, and then spent the morning looking around the newly opened Driving America exhibit. Fun cars, even more fun sets and props, and a couple of interactives to boot. We ate local foods for lunch, built wooden cars on a miniature assembly line, and spent the rest of the afternoon reading outside in this summery spring weather. Good stuff.

Drive-thrus and Drive-ins

"That car looks like a grasshopper"

"and he's talking to the ladybug!"

Working the Ford assembly line

spring

With spring comes rebirth, renewal, a fresh start. We could some of that right now. Eighty degrees makes this an unusual spring, and all the sun and bright blue sky makes it almost possible to forget the losses and vulnerability that have shadowed the past week.

So we begin again. We spent three days helping with tornado cleanup, and another helping at the donations center. The weather has helped immensely. There's been no rain since the storm last week, and a gentle breeze has started to dry things out a bit, and given people a chance to sort things out. Calvin has taken both the tornado and the loss of Moose in the kind of stride that only youth can exhibit. It has encouraged me to put away my own sorrow and move forward.

We've had our windows open, and we're exploring like we always do. Math, science, art, piano, history, and whatever comes our way. We've worn out our welcome in Mesopotamia, so Calvin drew a few pictures and closed the case today before we watched a video, (Egypt: Engineering an Empire) to start us off in Egypt. I suspect we'll spend a lot of time there. I have a few things to catch up on blog wise—some art to share, some book reviews, and another list or two of learning tools—and I'll get to them just as soon as I remember how to breath properly.

Perhaps

We opened the windows today, threw them wide to let in the fresh spring air. It was probably still a little chilly, but we just couldn't wait. Perhaps, just perhaps, it is spring.

We read, and cleaned, and played all morning. Calvin played with tangrams, created another Pooh scrapbook, this one for Owl, and then started in on the crafts in his new Highlights magazine. They're doozies—it's the April Fool's Day issue.

We did some chores, because the spring just calls for sweeping and straightening and storing and rejuvenating, then we spent the better part of our afternoon outside soaking up the sun and the breeze. We biked to the mailbox to look at the rain swollen pond, then to park to make use of the slides. It was wet after last night's storm and we have to get out to buy Calvin new rain boots before we can go hiking in our fields, something that gets number one priority this week, so today we stuck to the neighborhood footpath. We call it the bird path because this time of year we can go there to watch all manner of bird species flit about, sing, dance, and fill the world with life. We saw robins, sparrows, and juncos today.

Back at home we made tea and spread out in the sunshine on the floor to read. Calvin immersed himself in Mesopotamia, exploring The British Museum web site, while I tried to speed read through an historical fiction novel I have to review before Thursday. I looked up and every single one of us (except for the elusive Oahu) was in the sunshine somehwere—Moose and Iris in the front door, Ollie, Calvin, and I on the playroom floor, and Cookie on the window seat. It was that kind of beautiful afternoon.

And to top it all off, just before bed we went outside to view Jupiter and Venus in a brilliant spring sky. The Mesopotamians and the Mayans, Calvin reminds me, would have known when to see this special sight, too.