and then it is spring

Nearly recovered from the Bunny Business-related exhaustion, I can at last look back at a truly memorable day with some fondness.

It’s like labor – you see the cute little faces in the photos and forget the mind-bending pain (mostly).

 

My favorite part of the day was the Spring Celebration activities post-Hunt, themed around Julie Fogliano’s delightful book, And Then It’s Spring. The story follows a little boy as he waits anxiously for the seeds he has planted to grow in the first brown, chilly days of the season. The boy worries for his little seeds (and adorably guards his plot with a sign that says “Please do not stomp here. There are seeds and they are trying!”)

I was thrilled to have children’s librarian extraordinaire Ms. Christina from Burton Public Library read the book during a super fun and interactive post-Hunt story time (she brilliantly planned to have the kids up and dancing to burn off the sugar-induced energy!)

Inspired by many years of working at the incredible Brooklyn Botanic Garden (and channeling what I learned from its remarkable 105-year-old Children’s Garden) I offered a potting-up activity. Eager kiddos played in the dirt and planted carrot seeds to take home and grow in inexpensive and biodegradable peat pots. As a bonus, the pots offered a great surface to draw a picture or write some encouraging words to those little seeds with colorful markers.

I also bought super cute little chenille chicks and pom pom bunnies, not entirely sure what we’d do with them. Then, swimming in a sea of Hunt-related shipping boxes, I decided that we could recycle some of the cardboard by using it as the brown “ground” for a chick and bunny garden. My wonderful husband cut up an admirably large pile of little “plots”, and with the help of a neighbor and her daughter (and not one – but two glue guns!) I constructed popsicle stick fences and attached them to the cardboard. Each child received this with which to “plant” their garden:

I offered a variety of flower and bug stickers to adorn the fence, and a rainbow of colorful chicks and bunnies to invite to the party. The bunnies were easy to apply to the cardboard with the handy stickers on their feet. The kids used school glue to apply the little chicks and plant shredded paper grass on the ground:

And voila! From brown to green in just a few minutes! This craft would be so fun at any point in spring using little plastic farm animals or people. As a bonus, it is super inexpensive to make. It just requires a bit of adult prep (it took 3 people about 4 hours to make 85 fences).

My heart is bursting with gratitude for all generous friends/helpers/egg stuffing slaves that the Universe placed on the bunny trail with me, including the ladies of my writer’s group.  Special shout out to my friend Averil who faced an hour-long drive at the crack of dawn to help me set up, and Annette who, despite having minimal experience with kids OR crafts, ran the craft table like a boss!

Once I can safely clear a walking path through my post-Hunt-rubble strewn craft room  again, I’ve got lots of fun projects coming, including Dollar Tree hanging basket candle orbs for the porch, my take on felt flowers, and an upcycled door turned planter/side table.

Also: join me for my new Thrifty Thursday posts where I highlight all the crazy junk treasures that I drag home from my favorite local antique haunts.

Stay tuned!

PS: Check out this ridiculously adorable bunny. Thanks to the 4-H Bunny Bunch for bringing their sweet, friendly furries to visit with the kids!