Butterflies everywhere...

The favorite place at the Milwaukee Public Museum?

Was it the dinosaur skeletons? The European Village (with houses representing each country in Europe)? The rooms of prehistoric animals? The dioramas of the Artic, Asia, Pacific Islands, South America, the Ocean, etc.? No, it was the butterfly room.

We saw new swallowtails just emerging from their cocoons. There were butterflies of various types and colors flying around our heads or landing on us.

Alice transferred one to Connor's hand.

This took a few shots to get as the butterfly kept closing its wings. I love digital cameras! We tried and tried to get a butterfly onto Brenna's hand, but it usually flew just over her head.

After walking for hours, eating a picnic lunch, and riding home in a sun-warmed car, Brenna just couldn't keep her eyes open. Even with a half-eaten banana in her lap.

And so, Justin, I can post something besides snow...

So long, farewell, and goodbye!

Each day the temperature climbs a bit higher--49, 50, 51, and the snow is going, going, and soon will be gone. Now, I'm not naive enough to think it is gone for good this spring, afterall, we've built snowmen on April First (a real April Fool joke on us) before. I can hardly believe the pile of snow once encompassed the tree. But Spring is really coming! My fingers are itching to pick up a rake and a broom to loosen that packed down grass and sweep up all the left-over sand (for which we were grateful when the streets were full of ice).
Where the snow drift melted away just a few days ago, now a hyacinth is poking its head up!
For those of you who live in warmer climates, you probably don't understand the ecstatic feeling I had as I walked through my yard and saw these first signs of life. For you, the world is green the year around.

After a long four months of just white,

new green is about the most wonderful color in the world!

To go along with the baby daffodils and tulips I saw, I heard a robin singing and the sky had little fluffy white clouds floating in the blue.

What a great feeling--Spring!

I'm dreaming of a white.... Easter?

As we looked out the window on Friday morning, a snowy blizzard greeted us. The snow and wind continued the entire day. The radio reported traffic gridlock in Milwaukee as snow plows couldn't keep the roads cleared off and many, many traffic accidents occurred. We were so glad we had made the choice to go to the museum in Milwaukee on Thursday!

Brenna walked around the house singing, "Deck the Halls".

By Saturday morning, this is what we saw as we looked out Catherine's back window... 12 inches of snow! And the Easter Bunny trying to make his way through.And this was the view from front window, as Kevin went out early to shovel the driveway and sidewalks. We had all helped shovel at various times during the day.
By Saturday afternoon, the warm sunshine enticed us outside.

With a hillside and gravity to help, it only took a short time to have a family of snowmen with a watch dog on the end, in the back yard.

I'm afraid one of the snowmen won't stay standing very long.When we left on Sunday afternoon, the snow was perfect for snowballs.

The sunshine made heavy coats unnecessary. Robins were singing.
And another visit to West Bend ended peacefully.

(Notice those flip flops on Elly's feet!)

Going, going, gone...

During our January thaw... (before the next two feet of snow fell). On March 12, the snow bridge is still holding on, despite temperatures in the 40's, and a lot of melting going on!
March 13--51 degrees! The first time we've been THAT warm since before Thanksgiving. And see, the ice is receding out of the street. About a week ago I was finally able to walk the dog all the way to the top of the street.

Of course I had to walk in the middle of the street--there was about a 3-foot wide area of concrete showing without any ice. Each day the glaciers at the roadsides have receded a few inches and our streets are getting wider! (In some places it is actually 2 lanes again).

However, the neighborhood sidewalks are still not traversible--some are cleared off, but it seems like the neighbors just gave up for the last couple of snow storms. I guess they figure that since it is March, sooner or later it will melt anyway.

And now the ice is gone...

And we couldn't be happier!

But it was only a week or so ago that we were dealing with icy "pot-holes" in the road--spots where the salt had accumulated and melted out a crater. It took several minutes to drive up our street at 5 mph, to avoid hitting the holes too hard, or hitting the bottom of the car on the high spots.

There were areas of town where you didn't have to steer your car at all--with twin parallel ruts all you had to do was apply gas or brake. In fact, it was like driving a car at an amusement park with the wheels on a track so you can't stray. The ones on our street weren't quite so kind. The worst part was that all of this could have been avoided if the snow plows would have come while the ice was soft (when it first fell), instead of waiting for it to freeze really hard.A purchase of a potted plant helped me hold on. Spring has to come sometime!