When the snow melts

You rediscover the world beneath the snow.

The grass, dirt, toys and garbage that was buried for several months starts to emerge.

You feel the sun on your face, and inhale the outdoor air deeply.  

It is then that you realize six months worth of cat poop is also thawing...under your deck.  

You decide to inhale less recklessly.

When the snow melts.  It leaves water.  A lot of water.

It's a little boy's wonderland.

Familiar play places become flowing creeks of melted snow.

The bikes are bought out of storage.  

So are the helmets.

Which, in case you were wondering, is why they are wearing them in the pictures. 

They don't typically walk around in helmets.  

Although maybe they should, it would probably help them float.

Roman is ecstatic to have his bike back.  He has already built a ramp to jump it off of.

My treasure hunters enjoy searching for discarded cans and bottles that have collected under the snow all winter.

They drag them all home and litter up our yard with their valuables.

Right now our yard looks like we had a pretty wild party.  Squished beer cans strewn all over the back lawn.

We'll eventually haul them all into town and collect our $4.   

It keeps them busy outside.  That is worth more than four dollars.  

As you can imagine I do a lot of laundry this time of year.

Mud.  Ice cold water.  Rubber boots that don't go quite high enough.  Puddles with slippery ice on the bottom.   Boots firmly stuck in vacuums of mud.  

Little boys walking around in muddy socks and wet jeans.  

This is spring. 

After being cooped up for so many months, it is astonishing what they find exciting.

Who knew you could make a "kite" out of a piece of rope and an old plastic bag?

Only the mind of a little boy.