April in February

Today obviously stole the weather from April as it was *gorgeous* outside.

And as any kid knows (or maybe it's just my kids) the slightest bit of warmth in the air means summer! And shorts! And spaghetti straps! We had to pull out some of the boxes of warm-weather clothes and K found a pair of shorts and a sleeveless shirt that she soon traded for something with sleeves. It wasn't *that* warm! L was insistent on a dress, but we could only find one in the hand-me-down box and she can't wear it without a slip. I guess size 5 is when K was in the middle of her "I hate dresses!" phase. At least I now know that both girls are going to need some new clothes soon.

We started with school out on the back porch, where we had to spend some time cleaning all the chairs from a winter's worth of dirt and grime. After about half an hour, we had to come in as it was simply too windy. We finished our work and headed out the door with Mr. at Home for the park.

Along with the entire population within a 50 mile radius.

Seeing as Saturday is Skills Day for the softball league, we brought our gloves and balls and headed to the soccer fields for (a parking spot) some practice (the softball fields are being worked on). Have I ever mentioned how much K *lives* for softball? Mr. at Home and I very quickly realized that we're way old and way out of shape for all that work :-) We spent well over an hour on catching, throwing, and batting and even L got in on the action with her little glove learning how to do alligator catches and frog hops (where you have to move to one side or the other to stop a grounder). It floors me that she missed the cut-off for tee ball by only a month as I can't imagine her being able to concentrate enough for an organized game.

After having enough of the whining and complaining (from those pesky grown-ups), we packed up the softball equipment and let the girls play on the playground. Miss L is absolutely fearless now and scrambles up the tall climbing wall to reach the dark, curvy slide. She did come over crying at one point because some 5-year-olds had called her a baby (because, you know *5* is so much more mature), but she got over it. Even K was admitting that she was tired when we finally headed home.

On the way home, I saw the first pink blossoms on a few trees. And I forgot my tired legs and smiled with satisfaction that spring is really on its way. Because, if you didn't know, spring around here is breathtakingly beautiful.

I did *lose my mind* and promise to take K out for practice again if the weather stays nice this week. And I will. If my stiff hips, sore legs, and spaghetti arms will let me. At the very least I'll get to see a few more blossoms.