Spring is in the air here in Seattle (my apologies to the US Eastern seaboard!), and this lovely paper bird mobile is just waiting for a drift of air from an open window – or a sweet coo from a baby’s crib.

You can find items like this at Almost Sunday for prices ranging from $18 to $52.

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Last winter Seattle experienced a December Snowpocalypse, and we were without sleds while stranded for a week. Oddly enough, I found a couple on clearance in April.

(Because April is a GREAT month for sledding.)

Buying those sleds pretty much guaranteed it won’t snow here for decades.

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For some reason I feel like people who live where it’s REALLY winter guffaw at such attempts to make it look cute. And believe you me, I KNOW WHAT IT MEANS TO BE GUFFAWED.

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Here in Seattle we are deep into the gloomy fog of winter where the sun doth not shine.

*stabs eyes*

But yesterday my Daphne bush bloomed and filled my yard with a flowery fragrance, and then I saw this barefooted beauty who looked ready to frolic on the beach.

It’s just the thing I needed to give me hope I’ll see the sun again!

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I grew up in the frigid Midwest where it’s so cold your eyeballs freeze and your nostrils stick together. After I’d been in Seattle – oh, I don’t know, maybe ten years or so – I complained to my mom on the phone about how COLD it was lately and she was all, “How cold is it?”

“Forty degrees.”

She guffawed.  My MOM guffawed me.

“You’ve gone soft,” she said.

Maybe so, but I could still use these bear claw gloves to keep my son from biting his fingernails.

My mom is the Pajama Gramma. Doesn’t everyone have one of those? Maybe an auntie or close family friend? SOMEONE has to outfit the kids with cozy jammies every Christmas, and let’s just be honest, here: they’re WAY more exciting when they don’t come from mom.

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My friend had a turkey similar to this one sitting on her dining table this week. Apparently she is MUCH more organized and creative (and ambitious!) than I am because I was all, YARN! CRAYONS! GOOGLY EYES! OH MY!

I have a can opener. Can I get the Campbell’s Soup version of this craft?

I can’t resist one last Halloween-related post, and then we’ll be back to BIDNESS AS USUAL.

The shops in our neighborhood sponsored a fun kids festival on Saturday afternoon, complete with a bean bag toss, fishing pond, and kickball bowling lanes. I will say this about the costumes this year: Buzz Lightyear is making a come back. We also saw a fleet of pirates, a plethora of superheros, and a few zombie children. (Ew?)

AND THE BABYSAUR! So fun to see him on the loose, ready to kick the ball down the bowling lane.

Also sighted was a reluctant Babysaur who seemed more intent on devouring a Hostess Cupcake than showing me those RAWR hands:

Ferociously cute baby dragons are awesome too – they definitely have RAWRability:

Hope you had a fun, safe, and CUTE Halloween. See you back here Monday with more cute stuff!

“Um, mom?”

“Oh Steve, doesn’t she just look adorable?”

“Mom — “

“Steve, take the picture quick – she’s starting to smile!”

“Mom, I — “

“Wait, the flower is covering her face, let me fix that.”

“Mom, the fuzzy pumpkin on my right is scaring me — “

“Did you get the whole flower stem in the shot, Steve?”

“I can’t feel my toes anymore, mom.”

I love to decorate for Fall, but I’m not super crazy RAWR hands about most Halloween decorating. In fact, I was a little traumatized at the party store today when I went in there looking for a Batman mask to finish off my son’s costume.

I like the hissing cat silhouettes, and pumpkins, and bats dangling in forgotten corners. If it’s possible for Halloween to be CUTE, that’s what I’m into. Leave the skeletons crawling out of the ground to someone else, I say.

How say you? Do you go batty for a gory Halloween? Or do you keep it on the down-lo?