A Typical Springtime Afternoon

Today it hit 70 degrees. With such beautiful spring weather, our initial plan for the afternoon was to go to a garden. But with Brookside Gardens undergoing renovations and River Farm Gardens closed this afternoon to prepare for their spring sale, we decided we should just work in our own garden. After all, a lot of work needs to be done.

We started off by putting in a border to help establish the boundaries of our side garden.

After adding top soil, we planted peas and pumpkin seeds. Then we added some garden decor, including two giant pinwheels that were a gift from Grammy. (If you are wondering about the plastic bag on Meg's arm in the picture below, we were covering her cast in an attempt to keep it clean.)

Clare took a break from gardening to create her hedgehog from all natural materials. At school today she collected rocks, grass and other things from nature for the purpose of making a hedgehog. We had quite the negotiations regarding how to transport her collection home. I had the car vacuumed yesterday so I stubbornly refused to allow her to hold her collection in her car seat. We finally decided I would put her collection in a sand sieve in the very back of our car. At home, we again entered into negotiations. This time regarding where the collection would be placed. Much to Clare's displeasure, I put it on our back patio. While she would have preferred to work at an inside table, our gardening time was a great opportunity for Clare to create her hedgehog.

Clare was kind enough stop work on her hedgehog long enough to paint plant markers. We added these wooden markers to our garden to remind us of what we planted (because I assure you I will forget) and to give the garden a bit of homespun charm.

After putting the markers in the garden for us, Meg spotted a spider and decided to catch it in her bug catcher. I am sorry to report the spider had a short life. The girls let him out of the bug catcher and "accidentally killed him." I am not sure how this accident occurred--something about trying to pick him up with a stick.

Our gardening ended with the arrival of the girls' Easter dresses. This year I let Meg and Clare pick their own Easter dresses for the first time. We ordered them online so they were very excited to try them on immediately upon arrival. I must say I like their choices but I will wait until Easter to post pictures of the dresses.