We have had such a lovely jam packed couple of days and now I am so tired I am willing the cats and everyone else to sleep deep and long tonight so that I may get caught up on my own sleep. I really want to go look for frogs again tomorrow! I heard them singing last night when we got home from Seattle and I just know that means they have started their spring fling. This is almost exactly the time I went that magical year we heard them all singing along together. Last year I waited too long and while there were still so-many-frogs, it was not quite the exact singing time I remembered from the previous year. Whatever happens it will be nice to be outside again. I spent a few hours outside in the garden today planting mesclun mix, spinach and sugar snap peas. I also spent a good bit of time digging up feral sweet peas who had reseeded themselves from last year. What a sweet pea sensation there will be in just a few months. Our patio will be so fragrant with the blossoms of sweet peas...

Eva said the wood violets smelled so lovely, like some sort of candy and picked a bouquet to put in water. She spent some time planting with me and then visited the various flowers blooming around the yard. Three colors of crocuses greeted us today! Yesterday we were still in Seattle until late afternoon. We went to the aquarium and saw the Pacific Octopus. Eva made friends with a special fish in the Puget Sound area and we touched sea stars and sea anemone and I braved a spider crab. Did you know that spider crabs decorate themselves with whatever is around them for camouflage AND they also keep little bits on themselves to eat?

Samuel's favorite part of our trip to Seattle was going to the top of the Space Needle. He was so taken with the view he wanted to go up a second time the next day. My favorite part of the science museum was the butterfly exhibit. Eva was so sad the butterflies didn't land on her when she was pretending to be a flower. She is now very excited to send away for a butterfly cocoon this summer...