Welcoming Spring

The yard is bursting with bits of spring!  Our violet patch has grown this year and is bringing much delight to our token flower gatherer.  The azaleas are in their full glory, the tulips have opened, my spring lettuce is doing great, the dogwood has bloomed and the bees are a humming!  We have been spending as much time as we can outside (trying to suffer through the large amounts of pollen coating everything!).  To celebrate the official start to spring, we made some wool butterflies out of some roving, pipe cleaners and beads (inspiration found on pinterest).  I had planned on hanging them from a branch, but the kids wanted to put them on the mantle instead.  I think I like their idea better ;-)  We also made some birdseed cakes using plain gelatin and spring shaped cookie cutters.  They were supposed to be able to be hung, but I don't think using just black oil sunflower seeds was the best choice.  The gelatin just ended up sinking to the bottom so only half of the mixture gelled.  Oh well!  We set them out anyways and just this morning Kenna told me that the birds were eating the cake.  Jacob also rolled us a new meal time candle and I made a little candle holder out of sculpey.  After it was shaped and baked, I realized it would have been cute to shape it into a flower shape.  I will have to remember that for next time!  (By the way, sculpey is our new favorite modeling material!)  It was a wonderful and simple day welcoming spring.