Spring but it doesn't feel like it

"Always winter and never Christmas..."

We've been saying that in our house lately as the snow and cold temps continue to linger.  Chronicles of Narnia fans will understand.

Nora took her bike out in the field and biked a huge loop on crusty snow.

Daisy, getting bigger!

My little farm helper.  Lena loves going out to see the animals in the mornings.

Lily and Pepper, good buds.  The girls love petting them.  Karl's just waiting for Dad to get a tractor.

Karl out snow biking.

Lena found the bed for Clare's American girl doll and took it over.  She is such a climber!  I've found her up on chairs taking things off the counter and climbing up on the kid table in the kitchen.  Gotta watch this one!  Good thing she's so darn cute.

Matt took some old wood from the ceiling remodel in Lena's room and made this awesome bookshelf.  We'd gotten boxes of books from my parents' house as they were clearing out their shelves and we needed somewhere to put them all.

Clare had a snow day this past week due to the high winds and blowing snow, so we did some sewing.  She loves using the sewing machine's "fancy stitches".  We made pj pants for her doll and some pillow covers for the bedding she'd gotten for Christmas.   She made a few things all on her own too.

Cleaning up after the big storm: huge drift in front of the barn.

Meanwhile, in the house: Lena decided to help with laundry.  She's such a helpful toddler.  Most of that pile in the stroller was folded.

Playing outside after some of the snow melted.

Taking a walk down to the pond on the crust snow.

Adventure to the pond before Lena's morning nap.  We had to hurry back before the sun softened the snow too much.  The snow's still over 2' deep in most places.  

Karl helped me shovel out a path so the chickens could reach the grass starting to show in the yard. Chickens are very fussy about snow and won't walk in it unless they have a very good reason to.  They've been happy being out in the yard though, looking for the little bugs and worms and snatching up every bit of green grass trying to come up.

Lena has LOVED being outside.  It took her awhile to get the hang of walking in her tennis shoes but now she begs to go out.  This weekend was so different than last - warm and sunny with temps in the 50s.  Kids loved being outside.  I did too.