Do you see that?

The green return? Spring is definitely my favorite season of the year. I love summer but in the Midwest, it can get too hot and sticky. Winter is always beautiful, but LONG and I'm not a fan of being stuck inside all the time with the cold, dreary and grey weather it can bring. Fall is beautiful as well with bonfires, football and camping...but it starts getting chillier and you know winter is right around the corner. Spring is perfect though. Spring is hopeful. The sun finally arrives for good. The warmth makes you smile. With spring comes thunderstorms and the smell of a fresh rain, the scent and beauty of flowering spring trees, the daffodils and tulips coming out to play, the smell of the season's first cut grass and the sound of croaking frogs in the backyard creek. Grilling, running in a t-shirt and shorts, and wearing flip flops (which reminds me that I need a pedicure...BADLY). Spring this glorious April weekend brought many of these things...hours in the sandbox, on the swings, running through the sprinklers, riding bikes, playing near the creek, stubbed toes, ice cream, filthy bodies and late nights hanging in the driveway in lawn chairs with several neighbors while the kids had deserved reprieve from curfews and bedtime. Reminiscent of my own childhood...they ran around in the cul-de-sac illuminated by the street light wielding toy swords and chasing monsters (Oh, those were the boys. Kate and her little girlfriend took turns tossing their babies in the air and rolling around in the grass). That's what I call.....perfection.