Spring is here!

I got home from work early today, and what a great day to be able to leave my windowless classroom early! It's Friday, and finally feeling like spring. The trees are all blooming, the breeze is blowing, and it's warm enough to wear sandals.

Kai Wei asked if I would go outside with him, so we set off to ramble through the woods. Before we left he asked if we could pack a snack, so we put juice boxes, apples, carrots, and peanuts in his backpack. He was excited to show me all the places he and Daniel had explored the other day. We crossed little streams on fallen logs, fought with the overly abundant pricker bushes, jumped the muddy areas, and finally ended up in an open meadow. He was always on the look out for deer tracks (we found dozens) and would point them out to me, saying "mei guo lu!" (the word for deer in Chinese is really mei hua lu, but the first time he said it my Mom thought he said mei guo lu since mei guo means America and it just made sense that they would be American deer. He thought that was pretty funny and almost always refers to them as mei guo lu now). He was very disappointed when, after sneaking quietly up to the meadow, there weren't any deer grazing there. We often see deer when we are driving, but he almost always misses them. We are used to looking for them and know how to spot them, but every time we say "mei guo lu!" and point, we have already passed them or they have run away. He must be starting to feel like we have some vast conspiracy tricking him into believing there are deer around.

We had our snack in the meadow, and while we were chatting and enjoying the weather, I happened to see a bluebird! Kai Wei spotted it too, and when it flew off we saw another one. We tried sneaking up on them to take photos, but flew off before we got close enough.

Our route home was a little more direct since I was leading the way. We took off our shoes and socks, rolled up our pants, and waded in the stream for awhile to avoid the prickers.

What a marvelous way to spend a spring afternoon!

Here are a few pictures from the past couple weeks