My grandpa's birthday is in the spring so every year as a gift the whole family goes over to his house and cleans up the yard, plants some new annuals, and attends to any other household task that he might need help with. I typically have the job of edging their flagstone path and raking the old leaves out of the flower beds which leaves me with sore hand and arms, but I don't mind. This year, one of the things we did was paint my grandma's bedroom. She was getting tired of the wallpaper that was in there...that had been in there since they moved into the house over 20 years ago! So now it's pink, a very bright pink, but I think she likes it. We also celebrated Andrew's birthday during this event since his just passed last weekend. As part of our family tradition, he had to wear the hideous birthday hat for at least enough time for a few pictures. He was a pretty good sport about it.
On another note, I love magnolias in the spring. For most of my life I have lived in a house with a magnolia in the front yard. They are so nice for a couple of weeks but then the petals brown and fall all over the ground. I wish they lasted longer, but it's things like that which make spring sort of a magical event.
