Spring is in the Air!

We are enjoying a beautiful Spring, the trees are flowering and are a wonder for the eye and the smell is intoxicating, you can't help but be in a good mood.  I wanted to share some pictures of the children enjoying their outside playtime.

Our Mud Kitchen is always a well loved place to visit for a slice of mud-pie, a coffee or cocoa, cupcakes, and the newest addition wild dandelion and violet cake.

 

If you aren't too full from the Mud Kitchen, you can always find someone 

serving ice-cream from the play house.

In April we added a new toy to the yard, our ball run.  I purchased it from Kodo Kids which creates wonderful, open-ended, toys focused on enriching play through discovery and manipulating the function of toys.  The children have really enjoyed the ball run and I love watching the way they investigate the progress of the way their balls travel, and try to figure  out ways to improve the run or change the way it is set up.

Though not a lot is in bloom in our garden, everything is green and growing tall, and it has been a lovely little spot to hop on stepping stones and sit and take a break from play.

Speaking of garden, we have some sugar snap peas already coming up, and recently planted 20 strawberry plants, but next week is when we dive into  some seed starting inside as well as in our school garden. 

She said: "I wish I was a REAL Princess!"

Then poof, her dream was sent flying into the wind.

This reminds me of a haiku my husband wrote:

With a 1-2 punch

A dandelion left bare

on a young child's wish

The children will often run into the music hut for a quick concert and just as quickly run out to be onto the next adventure. 

And boy do they run, and run, and run!  I love the pure joy on their faces when they do.

There is also the thrill we get to see when they are free and flying on the swings.  Many of the children have recently become pros at pumping on their own.  Nothing beats that feeling of taking off and soaring.  

Here a crew of boys help each other out on the swings

This balance beam was set up by a group of children one day.  The wood was a border for our strawberry patch, and the crate held our balls, then all of a sudden it was a new toy for the yard.

On the boarder of our property and my neighbors is a beautiful crab-apple tree, which this year blossomed and showered more flowers then I have ever seen in the past.  We called it "Pink Land" and all this week we have enjoyed playing in showers of flower petals. 

 

Then there are moments like this, calming the body, and settling in on a bed of flower petals to hear a story.