Spring is Here!!

The long Northern New York winter seems to be over. (not 100% sure yet!) As I write this its already in the high 60s - AMAZING! The best part is the kids have been able to get out finally! We found this paved walking trail right near our house that follows the Black River and is my new favorite exercise spot. Its 6 miles and beautiful. I can't wait until its actually green and the flowers start to bloom. The best part is it totally wears out the kids!

Earth Day was this past week and Fort Drum was putting on a little celebration for the kids.  They learned about recycling and planting trees, and even got to take home their own potted plants, a douglas fir, and a crab apple tree.  You should have seen me holding all that plus stickers, pencils, posters, my purse, and trying to hold their hands.  The smarter people had wagons with them!

The girls holding their plants that they planted - and their blooming now!

The girls even met Smokey the Bear.  Later they had someone from the forest service at a booth and they had a bunch of animal pelts, including a big brown bear.  Aubrey was a little unraveled since she had just seen Smokey so we had to go back and make sure Smokey was alive and well!

Bekah learning about different kinds of trees and what the wood grain look like.  Below is the ET tree.  2 trees grew together into one to form a ET face in the grain.

Face painting was their favorite part of the day.  They wouldn't let me touch their faces all day so they wouldn't mess up their beautiful paintings!  See their trees in between them?