Spring green

When I realized that Easter was due to come very, very late this year my first thoughts were of beautiful green grass and warm sunshine, and how wonderful those things would be for photos and egg hunts and general spring enjoyment. The snow that we got just a few days ago made me skeptical, but both yesterday and today dawned warm and bright. The smell of spring is finally in the air, and that beautiful bright green really did add to photos after all.

Actually we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful spring weekend, and late is better than never. We spent yesterday in downtown Ann Arbor at a used book store closing sale (sad), and then in the yard and gardens doing a little clean up. Jon even mowed, and Calvin and I enjoyed the warm afternoon with books on the deck. We dyed eggs the natural way.

And today, the generally accepted day of spring celebration, was a little cooler, but just as pretty. We spent they morning with family, brunching at the old train station and walking around the new afterwards.

We'd made a spring basket for Calvin, filling it with a few of his favorite things, like Legos and books, and we spent the afternoon resting and enjoying those things. I took portraits with the new camera, something that didn't go as well as I might have liked, but it is a learning process. I have to edit the rest of them, but I'll post them tomorrow.

With rain, but relative warmth, on the docket for this week we soaked up as much of this weekend's weather gift as we could. And we are hoping that this week's wet and warmer weather will bring with it an explosion of leaves and flowers. We're ready.

Playing with cameras

Cortney cam:

Calvin cam:

Knights vs. Egyptian Gods

Sunny and cold. It's like the spring is taunting us. I look out the window in the morning at vivid blue skies and golden sun that just beckon us outside, but it's cold. Strangely enough, I would have called these temperatures warm just a month ago, and we didn't hesitate to go out in it, but now that we've had a taste of a warming trend the low to mid thirties is keeping us in.

So we stayed inside and played in the middle ages this morning. We finished his knight's helmet.

And I'm pretty sure that's Sir Gawain battling Anubis.

We did get out of the house for dinner, though, and to take a field trip for one last (or first, in Calvin's case) stop by Grampa's office before he leaves it for good later this week. It's really a very pretty building with lots of history.

And since tomorrow is not only the release of the book I've been waiting for, but also supposed to make it over 40 degrees, I think we'll spend a little more time out and about then. Every once in a while you just have stay home and play knights and Egyptians, though. I wonder if that's anything like pirates and robots.

Don't let the dog play the game

Perhaps you've seen the Pigeon books by Mo Willems. The one that I always think of is Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus. I'm not a fan of the Pigeon books, but that was immediately what came to mind when I saw this series of pictures on the camera today.

Don't let the dog play the game.

Please, please let me play the game?

I'm good at games. Really.

If you let me play the game I promise I'll be good for ever and ever and ever.

Well if you're not going to let me play the game I guess I'll have to go cry in the corner. Boo hoo! ... Have you changed your mind yet?

You didn't let the dog play the game, did you? Phew! Thanks a lot.

And if you're not annoyed yet, then the Pigeon books are probably for you. Personally I think it's adult humor, sarcastic in nature, innapropriately aimed at children. The Piggy and Elephant books (There is a Bird on Your Head!) by the same author is a better series with a similar dry humor, minus the sarcasm. We kind of enjoyed those.

Fall splendor

Fall is my favorite time to run outside—the temperatures are perfect, the colors beautiful. When I get to run outside I take a route into town that, for the lack of sidewalks, goes through the cemetery. The cemetery is vivid with the colors of fall and on each trip through it I've promised myself that I'd come back later with a camera and a kid (preferably mine). Today I finally kept that promise. Fall is so beautiful.