Rite of Spring

In what is becoming an annual spring tradition, the other day I took several pictures of Sawyer and Randy standing beneath/in front of one of our flowering cherry trees in the backyard. I have made two very sweet scrapbook pages for the last two years and am looking forward to creating something equally special this year.

What I absolutely do NOT remember from either of the two previous years is having to bob, weave and duck to avoid being drilled by one of the seemingly thousands of bumblebees swarming in the fragrant blooms of the cherry tree. Honestly, it defies belief that they are not visible in the photos I took. At any rate, maybe it's just me, but I think that two of the photos I took are simply priceless! Randy might be able to "grin and bear it" when bees are swarming all around his head, but Sawyer was, by turns, suspicious of those buzzy buggers and then downright wigged out! Have a look:

 

 

Every time I look at that second picture I crack up--I caught Sawyer right in mid-yelp as a bee dive-bombed him! I'm telling you, bees were EVERYWHERE. And I'm talking about the big, FAT bumblebees that are apparently so drunk on nectar and loaded down with pollen that they can't fly in a straight line, but are able to make a bee-line (I'm beginning to understand where that phrase came from) for any person in a 20-foot radius! They are draining the fun out of playing around the swingset because they are so thick; and unfortunately, they LOVE to make their nest in our fort so every year it's the same song and dance--avoid them as long as we can, allowing that we are, after all, sort of invading "their" space; and then finally bring out the big guns and exterminate as many as we can find.

We thought we'd conquered the problem a couple of years ago when we took the plastic panels off the sides of the forts (they built their nests right inside), but now they just bore into the wood and set up shop. And they are none too happy when we come out and start playing around on their turf! It was either last year or perhaps the year before that that one of the kids (Tyler? Darcy?) got stung on the top of his/her head while attempting to navigate through the "forbidden zone" of the fort and down the slide. Ouch! A visiting friend received the same nasty consequence. That was when the panels came off.

Oops--gotta run. We're taking the kids to see Charlotte's Web at the dollar movie today and it starts in less than half an hour. In the meantime, with Easter festivities upon us, if you're reading this while sitting in the air-conditioned comfort of your home because it's anything above 75 degrees where you live, please think of us YET AGAIN this year as we wear our woolen stockings, heavy coats, hats and mittens in an effort to conduct an egg hunt without freezing to death in the cold and snow!