Popcorn popping on the apricot tree

I love all the blossoms on the trees in the springtime! The kids love looking for "popcorn" trees while we are driving around. Our neighbor has a "popcorn" tree (actually a Magnolia tree) that they love to look at. I made them get in front of it to take a picture, which Tyler grudgingly did. They are getting better, but it seems like I have to FORCE my kids to go play outside when it is such beautful weather. I remember when I was a kid I HATED having to go inside and I would have played outside all night long if I could. I loved using my imagination to make a house under a shrub, soups out of berries, leaves and sticks, and mud pies out of - you guessed it - mud from our driveway! Maybe I was older and since we lived on a country road and had lots of yard to play in I could enjoy it more, but it frustrates me that my kids stay out a few minutes and then ask to come in. Actually, I guess I have to rephrase that. If I'm outside with them they would stay out a long time and are very imaginative and have lots of fun, but if I can't go outside with them for some reason or other they don't like staying out there very long at all. Although now that Tyler can ride his bike without training wheels (a post on that coming up) he is much better at wanting to go outside. Also, since the playset is outside the fence I haven't liked letting them be out there alone for too long or in the front yard since our street gets a lot of semis and traffic from the highway. Now that Tyler is older and very cautious I am letting them stay out more often without me. I just wish our playset was fenced in and there wasn't a dog in the backyard pooping everywhere. They do enjoy riding their bikes in the garage, but they can't really go anywhere else because there is a gravel alley outside the garage that is hard to ride on. Well, not that I meant to complain about my kids, and really I wanted to talk about how we are finally getting some nice spring-like weather and how we've enjoyed it recently, but those issues pop up about this time of year, so I have to deal with them. Maybe in a few years we can live somewhere with nice sidewalks, less traffic, and a playset in the back yard, but for now we just deal with what we have available. In these situations, I always try to remember a quote from a Mary Englebreit calendar I once had: "Bloom where you are planted." - Good advice, but not always the easiest to follow!