First Day of SPRING

No, that's not a typo.

Yes, I know for most of you reading this, it was the first day of Autumn/Fall yesterday; for us, in the Southern Hemisphere, it was First Day of Spring.

The changing of the seasons is a barely-noticed event where we live; we're inside the Tropic Zone (we're less than 100km north of, or above, the Tropic of Capricorn), so seasons are very much the same from one to the next. Around here, it's mostly Dry Season (which we're leaving behind) and Rainy Season (which we're heading into). 

Winter to spring is not marked by melting snow, shedding of jackets, the appearance of buds or blossoms, the greening up of the landscape or even more sunshine. No, for us, winter to spring is noted by vacuuming the dust off the fans and bringing them out of hiding, running the dryer at night so as not to heat up the house during the day, the presence of the umbrella salesmen on the side of the road (and of our umbrella always in easy reach), and the return of the few migratory birds who visit our feeders.

Still, it is now officially spring time. And, stealing an idea from  joining my good friend GfG over at Morning Star Academy, I decided to celebrate spring with some fun crafts for the boys. A great time was had by all.

Don't they look like they're having a blast?

We made rain pictures -- coffee filter umbrellas with craft stick handles; aluminum foil puddles (or darkness, if you're The Adventurer), and blue fingerprints for raindrops. So fun.

Didn't they turn out great?

We also made toilet paper tube parrots, to symbolize the return of migratory birds. Since we do feed the birds in our backyard, and some of them are migratory, I thought this was an appropriate one.  We don't get these kinds of parrots, not in our part of Brazil, but they sure were fun for the boys to color.

Lastly, The Writer had the great idea to do rainbow handprints. He suggested, and I consented, that they each dip their hand in the plate full of paint, and then leave a handprint on the brown paper we were using to protect the table. What a great idea!

So, they did, and I now have perfect little captures of just how small (or big) their hands were on the first day of spring, 2010. We'll pretend the rainbow colors were on purpose to remind us of the many rainbows we'll see during the sometimes dreary (but not usually) rainy season.

Cute, huh?

Best of all, we had a really fun day. Look at these smiles -- totally worth the mess, right?

Did you do anything to celebrate the changing of the seasons? What do the changes look like where you live?