First Day of Spring, 2016

     This past Sunday was the first day of Spring (and what I informally consider the start of the New Year), and we're continuing with the traditions we've started recently.

     Just like last year, we're celebrating the egg/bunny part of Easter on the first day of Spring because those are traditionally Spring celebrations, not Christian ones.  So Mc and I cleaned up the house and hid the eggs in a few of the rooms for the kids to find.

They both liked their bunnies.  :)

We didn't make the eggs too difficult to find because the kids are still young, and it was still fun for them.  Next year we'll make it a little more challenging.  ;)

Mc's family used to assign colors to each kid so that everyone could have an equal number of eggs and so each kid was sure to get some for themselves, so we did that with our kids as well.  We let them choose which colors they wanted to find; Baby Girl chose pink and purple, Little One chose blue and yellow, and so they got to split the green ones.

So they don't eat the candy all at once, we had them keep the candy in the eggs, then keep the eggs in the baskets, and once a day they get to choose an egg and eat the candy inside.  We did the same thing with their Halloween candy and their Valentine's candy, that way they don't get sick from too much sugar and they're also not bouncing off the walls from sugar highs.

Our front and back yards have more flowers than we realized.  This is the picture I added to my Facebook profile, and I'll put a few more pictures of the flowers on here when the rain lets up.

(Today was sunny!  Here are a few more flowers in our yards)

     Then my other tradition is switching out a few things around the house on the first day of each new season.  I bought everything last year, so now it's just a matter of switching them out.

 The shower curtain.

The dishes.  I had a few choices picked out and Mc liked this one the best, and I think they're pretty.  The lighting isn't very good, but they have a soft, delicate look to them.

And this is the baking dish I have for Spring desserts---little rose cakes.  I had forgotten to put more butter from the freezer into the fridge, so the butter wasn't ready and I couldn't make them on Sunday.

Here's the recipe, if anyone would like to try it for themselves.  :)

I finally made them last night.  The first batch is in the back and I followed the directions exactly.  The second batch is in the front, and with that one I put the jam into the batter, mixed it up, then poured it into the baking dish.  Mc likes the taste of the first batch better, and I'm on the fence about it.  In the morning I'll see which ones the kids like better.  But yeah, they turned out well.

     The final tradition I've started is going over our finances with Mc on the first day of each new season.  It's something I want to do a few times a year, and the first day of each new season is easy to remember.  Mc makes all the money and I do most of our day-to-day spending, so I want to stay informed on how we're doing and to see if I need to scale back on my spending and where.

     This was a nice first day of Spring.  This coming Saturday the ice skating class is cancelled because Easter is the next day, and so we'll be taking the kids to an Easter egg hunt on Saturday morning at a nearby golf course.  My mom also mailed us some Easter egg stuff, so we'll be doing that next Sunday.  I'll post pictures of that next time.  :)