last weekend, we had a string of days in the low 30s which felt downright balmy. after a bit of hemming and hawing, we got eleanor into her winter gear and had some fun outside. i built a little snow lady and snow baby and E used her gardening tools to rake and scoop up snow into a bucket while rob did the serious work of shoveling the walks.
E got pretty adept at shoveling--never mind that she was moving the snow onto the walkway.
there has been a fair bit of painting at the easel lately (the rainbow and letters were done by grammie). E's favorite subject is clouds of various colors.
spring fever has definitely been creeping into our indoor activities. E has been talking a lot about planting seeds and making a garden when the snow melts. on wednesday, we made a trip to UI's natural history museum and spent some time spying the little details (snail shells, hiding birds, beetles) in the "springtime at palisades-kepler state park" diorama. that morning, eleanor asked if we could go to the "garden center" to get seeds and dirt and flower pots and tools. after the museum we stopped at earl may and picked up some heirloom seeds (i explained that we already had all that other stuff)--tomatoes, peppers and milkweed (to attract some monarch caterpillars)--and she's been having fun carrying them around, shaking the packets and pretending to plant them.
