Chase the winter blues away with these spring green ideas...

Some more great tips from the ladies over at Celebrate Green. Bye-bye winter blues...hello spring green!

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Celebrate spring with these 3 eco-ideas

The thermometer may still register freezing, but the calendar says spring is on its way.

So whether daffodil stems have barely pierced the dirt or have already popped open where you live, here are five eco-friendly ways to dump the winter blahs and celebrate spring.

Why are they eco-friendly?

• They don't require buying
• They produce no waste
• They have no impact on the Earth

1. Plan an afternoon outside

• Hunt for signs of spring. See who can find the most.
• Dye silks that kids love to use for play
• Take a book about trees and identify as many as you can. Take a sketch book and let everyone draw the different trees
• Making bark rubbings using crayons
• Collect rocks to use for crafting
• Play clothes pin tag and other tag games
• Build a shelter from things you have lying around
• Create an obstacle course from natural materials, for example, rocks and branches

2. Create!

• Look around your house and gather materials that you can use to make spring collages. Papers of all kinds of course, costume jewelry, even nuts and bolts. Give everyone a piece of cardboard, then glue the items on to make flowers or other spring images.
• Make birdhouses cardboard or scrap lumber. The former can be hung outside in protected areas or kept inside as a reminder of spring.
• Hand make a book featuring quotes about spring.
• Make up a play, song, puppet show or skit with a spring theme.
• Paint or wrap paper around cans that you can fill with flowers or blooming branches when the time is right
• Make flower pins using felt you can easily make from old wool sweaters

3. Go a little crazy! (You've just been through a long winter, it's OK!)

• Eat breakfast under the dining table
• Stage a backwards dinner (insist that no one will get their broccoli unless they eat their dessert)
• Make faces with your food
• Make flour finger paints then "finger paint" with your feet!
• Exchange roles for a meal. Put everyone's name on a piece of paper (remember to recycle). Each person chooses. Whomever they get, they assume that role during dinner.
• No matter your age, try standing on your head (with help and against a wall still counts)
• Put on some springlike music and dance til you drop

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Lynn Colwell and Corey Colwell-Lipson are mother and daughter and co-authors of Celebrate Green! Creating Eco-Savvy Holidays, Celebrations and Traditions for the Whole Family, available at www.CelebrateGreen.net.