created at: 2013-05-07It’s not an exaggeration to say that we are in middle of the most amazing stretch of Spring weather that I can remember.

With midday temperatures around 70, and the evening dipping into the 40s, it’s been a perfect combination of baseball, running, picnics, and fire pits for the past week and a half. And in our house, that’s a recipe for joyful exuberance. It also doesn’t hurt that the Red Sox are on a tear and the Bruins may have turned on the proverbial switch to make a run towards the Stanley Cup finals.

While I’m certainly projecting some of my own existential happiness upon this nice stretch of weather, my kids clearly get it. When I picked up my sons from school on Friday, I came home and we quickly transitioned into outdoor time. My older daughter got her pink baseball glove and scooter, my baby was rolling around on a blanket, and the boys played catch. Cars drove lazily by, friends walked past us with their dogs, and I couldn’t have been happier.

After a half hour three of them ran inside on a “secret mission” and came back outside to set up an elaborate 4:30 picnic on the front lawn, replete with rice cakes, fruit, juice boxes, and, the kicker, fake flowers in tiny vases. For lack of a better term, I called it Kabbalat Shabbat and Instagrammed it.

In a week and weekend when the last thing I wanted to do was cook and not be outside, that sun-splashed picnic with plastic daisies and snacks was probably the sweetest Kabbalat Shabbat I’ve had in a while.

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