Signs of spring

The last of the snow has officially melted in our yard and I saw my first robin today.  Here are some other signs of spring in the Lorenzen household:

• The kids & I made our debut trip to the "castle park" on Sunday afternoon.  Emily was overjoyed.  She ran around for 45 minutes swinging like a monkey on everything that is designed to be swung on since that activity has basically been banned at home.  Lincoln loved the baby swing and giggled almost the whole time.  However, he is going to have to learn to walk before we can really enjoy the park.  Now he just wants to eat all the pea gravel. :op
• The grill is back on the deck and I can't wait to use it for the first time in months!  The Little Tikes picnic table and the new lounge chairs we received for Christmas are also out.  I'm still deciding on the placement of the sandbox.
• The Cozy Coupe and tricycle have moved out of the basement and into the garage.
• I took down the sad window plastic and untaped the drafty door leading out onto the back deck. 
• I was holding out hope that I would be surprised by beautiful spring bulb flowers since we saw the house for the first time in June. This is the only thing I've found so far. It looks like a rabbit found them, too. Hopefully we'll still get a tulip or two. However, there will still be other fun things that were done blooming by the time we saw the house. Our landscaping has a lot of potential. (Read: improvements that can be made)
• Austin shaved off his winter beard.
• The snowflake dishes are packed away.
• I did a sweater sort and changeover of my wardrobe.  Below is the before and after of the sweater organizer in my bedroom closet.  Using the wise advice of a great organizer friend, if I didn't wear it in the past year or I don't "love it" anymore, I eliminated it.  Then I moved the whole thing to the cedar closet in the attic for storage.  I also hung up the spring/summer clothes I had packed away.  Some are from last summer.  A few are hold-outs.  As in "maybe someday I'll fit into these again if I'm not 6 months on either side of a pregnancy."  If I don't wear them this summer there will be another major purge.  I'm already planning on having a big garage sale this fall.

• I bought myself some new spring/summer clothes at Old Navy--including my first pair of Bermuda shorts. I know. I'm so fashion-forward.
• I got out the kids' spring/summer clothes.  It's a never-ending task doing clothes sorting/switching for growing kids.  I had been stashing various items for Emily in the backs of closets as I acquired them.  As I expected, when I got them all out she immediately had to cut the tags off (herself) and wear them all.  I found a chunk of hair next to the pile of tags, so it must have accidentally gotten in the way.  Yikes!  I think she slept in her new ladybug shirt & skirt from Target last night.
• I bought swimming suits for the kids.  This was a bit of a guessing game as far as sizing.  I got two for Emily.  Considering the fact that she refused to put on a swimming suit the entire summer last year, these went over amazingly well.  In fact, she slept with the top of the two-piece on underneath her jammies one night.  They are hanging up in the place of honor on the pegs by her door.  Hopefully that means we'll get to spend a little time at the pool this summer!
• I'm still holding out on washing up and packing away the winter coats & gear until after this weekend.  However, I'm not sure I'd be able to convince Emily to put her winter coat back on at all.  She's too in love with her bumblebee raincoat. :o)