What do you do when it snows again? You take your dead azalea plant, the one a dear family friend gave you for Christmas, place it in front of your preschooler, and have him peel off all the dried-up leaves and crumpled blossoms. (I do not have a green thumb. When Luke was a newborn, this failing played often on my mind. "I can't keep a plant alive. Whatever possessed me to think I could keep a human alive?" I tried with this plant, I really tried. Too bad we didn't receive it early last fall. Perhaps its failure to thrive would have reminded us to take more care with birth control.)
Then, once the branches of the tree are bare, help your child tear up pieces of green and pink tissue paper and stick them on. Add a few fabric flowers, a whole lot of Easter eggs, and some tiny fluffy chicks. Et voilà -- who care what it's doing outside, it's (fake) spring in your dining room!
I need a spring tree in my apartment today. We went back to -31c this morning here in Saskatchewan. Brrr!
Love your little boy!
Posted by: gigi | March 09, 2009 at 04:26 PM
Seriously, I'm from Sask too (are we invading?) and I love the idea of bringing Spring inside now. Cute!
Posted by: MayB | March 10, 2009 at 03:51 AM
Oh, that's lovely. Back when my son was little we once made an egg-tree with dyed quail's eggs. It was fantastic.
Posted by: 123oleary | March 10, 2009 at 08:56 AM
what a great blog... and of course it's Canadian, like so many good things (-:
hello from BC - I'll definitely be trying this out at Easter - although my 13 month old might not be as appreciative yet...
Posted by: farrah | March 12, 2009 at 02:19 PM
Brilliant idea!
Posted by: Sonja | March 12, 2009 at 02:54 PM
Thanks, everybody. (And hello to all you westerners!)
Posted by: Steph | March 13, 2009 at 09:14 PM