Spring has sprung!

The weather has been gorgeous here lately (despite the volcanic ash cloud from Iceland that hovered somewhere overhead) so we've been taking full advantage of that and "working" outside for a while every day. It is in the mid 30s in the morning and mid 50s to low 60s in the afternoon, but there is plenty of sunshine, so we will take it!

Frédéric made a square in the garden for the boys to "work" in - Benjamin is as yet undecided on whether to plant something there or just build dirt castles. He's been telling us where to plant the mangos and bananas... I guess we have a few more gardening lessons to work on, like the ones dealing with climate.

Noah does NOT like being told to not destroy Benjamin's dirt castles. Here he is telling me he is "Not Happy!" complete with arms folded and scowl.

And Benjamin had a similar scowl after a run-in with a bee -- something else it turns out he is afraid of. He wasn't stung, he just saw it flying a little too close to him. The list of what Benjamin is scared of these days is getting longer by the minute. Besides spiders and bees, the list also includes dust hanging from the ceiling, the dark, an area under his bed, and the clock on his wall (until I removed it, and then he wasn't scared of it anymore and wanted it back), and some other as yet unidentified items that also cause floods of tears, most especially at bedtime.

One little gardener hard at work.

And a few more pictures of our pretty real Dutch tulips and the cute curly-haired model (the cute straight-haired model had already gone to seek refuge from the bee inside the house).