I Hope the Groundhog was Right

For the past few days, we have had temperatures in the 50's and things are starting to melt a little bit. There's still a nice hard pack of ice coating everything, but it's been nice to hear the drip, drip of melting, and see the nice bright sun.

Our poor back yard! It's usually an oasis of fun for kids. Now it looks like this:

(I probably should have taken those during daylight hours and not while the sun was setting.. LOL)

Hopefully, it will become a fun place to play again. We're all kind of tired of the ice rink, and would like a little bit of fresh air! I'm hoping that the groundhog was right, and that soon we'll see the crocuses and tulips.