On the first day of spring

My children woke me up at the first light of dawn with excitement and wonder filled eyes. "Wake up Mama! The root children have arrived!" I took a moment to focus on their sweet little faces and then got out of bed and followed them to our back door. We all put on our boots and then they ran outside looking for treasures and any signs of spring. It was colder than they expected outside so they quickly found the few small gifts left out for them, including C and Little L's new water bottle carriers and came back inside to warm up. Giddy talk of popsicles, gardens and sprinklers was had around the  breakfast table.

Truth be told, we started our tradition of the root children bringing gifts on the first day of spring back before we observed Easter. I wanted my children to still have the experience of egg hunting. But once we started celebrating Easter I thought I should do away with our root children gifts. I had been trying to phase them out but it just hasn't happened. The children love it too much. I don't want to take it away from them. So instead I have just simplified the gifts even more to mostly edible items and one bigger thing and just go with it.

My children spent a good portion of the day with one of their spring gifts - a crystal mining kit. Oh my, what a great gift it was! K patiently and carefully excavated most of the crystals, asking so many question along the way. I do believe she is developing a love of geology. C and little L took turns too, but enjoyed watching K do it more. K remarked that she really appreciated all the hard work the gnomes do after trying it herself. Later in the day, the girl dug out their spring/summer clothes and hung them on our playstands to admire. Dress up shortly followed. We then took a short nature walk to search for spring around us and found a few bits of green here and there.

Even though it was still cold and windy outside, those popsicles we spoke of so longingly earlier were made at the end of the day (peach party popsicles from here, to be exact.!) They will be enjoyed in our warm house while dreaming of the spring weather soon to come! Happy spring everyone!!

p.s. - Instructions for making our felted eggs (a great alternative to plastic ones!) can be found here.

On the first day of spring