Late Spring

Spring has been slow to arrive this year in Minnesota.  When we traveled to Point Reyes, California for spring break, it snowed in St Paul.  And then it snowed again in April and again on May day.  The leaves on the sugar maples along our boulevard have finally appeared, along with the flowering fruit trees and spring bulbs.  We found that the slow unfolding of the buds allowed us to have an entire week of spectacular bird migration viewing from Leif's bedroom window.  Travis and I had a little friendly competition for unusual sightings and between us we saw 12 different warbler species, numerous swainson's thrushes, an indigo bunting, eastern bluebird, several orioles, and rose-breasted grosebeaks in our backyard elm tree.

School is winding down and the kids are excited for summer to begin.  There will be soccer, violin, piano, sailing school, art camp and day camp, canoeing in the Boundary Waters, along with a trip or two to the Iowa ranch and Wisconsin and then the east coast in August.

Wren has each one of us enamored with her every smile, and she gives them out liberally.  What joy it has been to have a baby in the house again.  Each new development from laughing to chewing on her toes is greeted with cheers and claps from her siblings.  Leif wrote a poem about her for school and declares his love for her regularly.  Hanna is disappointed if she isn't awake before they leave for the bus, and Elisabet does not seem bothered at all by her displacement as youngest in the family.  Someone at church told me recently that they love how they huddle around her when she is awake during the service.