As soon as the daffodils opened two weeks ago, my children E-Grrrl and Mr. A could no longer suppress the dormant urge to cultivate life. My son rummaged through the kitchen cabinets and found some dry beans which he and his sister placed with wet paper towels into Ziploc bags attached to the window to sprout. He also rescued an onion and a bulb of garlic from becoming part of dinner, setting them in dirt to sprout as well.

The two kids hijacked their dad’s spade and a pile of glass jars from the recycling pile in the basement and went outside seeking plants. They dug up moss, grass, and various and sundry other green and glorious things, transplanting them into the jars and spritzing them (and each other) with a spray bottle full of water.

 For their finale, they raided the potting bench and shook unknown seeds into a planter just to see what would grow. The windowsill in the kitchen has now been transformed into a long and lovely cat salad bar--I mean NURSERY.

When the warm sunny days hit earlier this week, Mr. A and E-Grrrl were eager to explore the wandeling by our home. We squished along the muddy path and admired the budding trees and pink, yellow, and white wildflowers growing on the forest floor. At the pond, my son was looking for tadpoles and was thrilled when E-Grrrl pointed out something even better—mountains of frog and fish eggs in the marshy areas. Mr. A carefully harvested some eggs and put them in the small pond in the terrarium and frog habitat he had created at home. With a little luck the eggs will soon hatch and develop into homegrown cat toys—I mean FROGS.