Spring Day!

Yesterday we celebrated our family-made, annual tradition of Spring Day.

Luke and I invented this day a few years ago so that we could enjoy all of the seasonal fun activities with our kids, like baskets and egg hunts, without it completely overtaking Easter Sunday. It's become one of our favorite days to spend together as a family, which probably has something to do with the fact that we get to do whatever we want, however we want, whenever we want, and there's no pressure of any outside obligations.  Literally the perfect made-up holiday. 

Outside of maybe Galentines Day or Festivus.

This year I filled their "baskets" (which were actually just paint pails from Menards) with chalk, bubbles, kites, umbrellas, garden stakes, bug catcher sets, and little pots with flower seeds in them.

Every year is a little bit different, but I always stick to the theme of things to do or wear outdoors, and I love being able to bless them with some new, fun things for the season.

And they enjoy it a little too.

Before we gave them their buckets, I had gone outside with a bag of plastic eggs filled with peanut M&Ms, and hid them all around our property. 

They each had around 18 to find, and they have their own designated colors (which we learned we had to do after the first year when it was a free for all, and one of our kids ended up collecting 90% of them all in under 10 minutes, because she's fast and has a wider gate than her brothers. Lesson learned.)

We unleashed them to go hunt for eggs and enjoyed watching them go from confused to victorious over and over and over again. 

And yes, I did put a couple of eggs high up in a tree. 

Look, I really believe that as parents, it's our job to create safe, loving environments to challenge our children in, and if we happen to find a little sick satisfaction in those moments, well then so be it.

 As we watched Boaz awkwardly navigate through branches, Luke said "Babe, that is so savage and I LOVE it."

I also hid a few in our chicken coup and underneath the cars. 

Parenting is fun.

This year we also hid one golden egg that was available for anyone to find, which had a couple quarters in it. I honestly could not be more proud, or shocked, that it was August who found it.

This is the same kid who who will collapse into a full blown nervous breakdown because he can't find his shoes WHEN THEY'RE RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM.

Hopefully this is the first sign of a major breakthrough.

We always enjoy the first day in the year when we're able to play outside together as a family. It might not have been super warm out, but the snow was almost all melted and there was just enough sunshine and wind to enjoy flying kites, blowing bubbles, and coloring with chalk.

We eventually came inside to dye eggs, and even though it sort of looks like I'm wearing my I'm super annoyed right now face, it's actually my Look how relaxed I'm being while my happy kids are dropping breakable objects into wobbly bowls of dye that are spilling all over my table face. 

(Not to be confused with my I really need a root canal face. They probably all kind of look the same.)

Anyway, yes that is me. Miss Cool and Collected!

NEVER ALWAYS TOTALLY CALM NEAR CHILDREN DOING MESSY CRAFTS!

Seriously though, I'm almost as proud as of myself for staying so chilled out as I was of August for finding that gold egg. Neither of us ruined the whole day with our weird life struggles, and I feel like that was a big win for both of us.

We helped the kids plant seeds in their mini terra cotta pots, got dirt everywhere (which paired nicely with the spilled dye and all of the paper stuffing strewn across the house) and called it a day.

A really good day.

I also use Spring Day as a reason to start putting up Easter decor, which I feel always helps me get into the spirit of celebrating. We've really enjoyed the practical benefits of separating this day and Easter, so that I don't have to squeeze a million magical activities into an afternoon in between dressing up, church, and making a big feast. 

Plenty of people can handle that without being medicated, I'm just not one of them.

I especially love celebrating the coming of Spring because we live in Minnesota, where winters are long and cold and dark. It gives us the opportunity to point our kids to the awesomeness of God, who created different seasons and unique beauty in all of them. I think we have a deep and special appreciation for all of the new life He brings this time of year, because we feel like we're kind of coming back to life a little bit too.

God is so good. And as cheesy as it sounds, there really is nothing better than celebrating His goodness and beauty together as a family.

Especially when it includes watching our kids collect eggs from ridiculous places.