Happy May Day!

I couldn't resist watching the Royal wedding on Friday.  I was too young to remember Charles & Diana's, so it was fun being able to watch this one.  I loved Kate's dress...it was gorgeous!  I had Hailey watch a little of it with me and realized that she was probably the same age as I was when Charles & Diana got married.  She kept referring to Kate as "Jesus"...another person with long brown hair and dressed in a long white "robe".  I tried to explain that Kate was not Jesus and that's what girls wear when they get married.  So, I showed her a picture from Brian's & my wedding so she could see how I also wore a white dress.  After that, whenever Kate would come on the TV again, she'd say, "Mommy, is that you?"  My reply?  "No, but I wish!" :-)

On Saturday, we ran some errands and picked up a rain barrel.  We've gotten quite a bit of rain this Spring and wanted to take advantage of anymore.  Rain water is so much better for a garden than tap water!  This rain barrel holds 50 gallons of water.  We actually had rain in the forecast for the afternoon, so Brian worked as fast as he could to get the thing set up.  He had to make two trips back to the store to get additional downspout and stones to elevate it.  He had to take apart the existing downspout, cut the new one and then put it up.  It looks great!  The rain we were supposed to get?  Well, that turned into a small shower overnight.  Figures!  Later in the afternoon, I helped Hailey put together a little greenhouse kit that Brian had gotten her.  It starts seedlings for Zinia flowers and grape tomatoes.  She has been wanting to grow her own flowers, so she was really excited to put this together!

The rain barrel/bin. The hose to the right drains any excess water before it overflows and the hose in the front is what you use to get the water out. There are filter screens on the top to keep debris out.

Planting the seeds.

Adding the water.

 All ready to put in a warm spot...our kitchen window.

On Sunday, we drove Hailey over to my parents' house to deliver May Day flowers to my mom...a long standing tradition in my family.  My siblings & I would always deliver flowers to my grandmother on May Day.  In case you don't know about this celebration, you deliver flowers to a person's doorstep, ring the doorbell and then run away (or hide in our case) since you're supposed to give them anonymously.  We always would then reappear out of our hiding place once we knew my grandmother had come to the door and shout, "Happy May Day!"  We stayed to visit at my parents' house for a little while.  My mom came up with an idea for Hailey since Hailey loves the new Disney cartoon "Jake & the Neverland Pirates".  So, Brian helped my mom cut some plywood into a "plank" (or balance beam).  Jake "walks the plank" in one of the episodes, so Hailey repeated most of the words. "You hold your arms out like this and then you put one foot in front of the other."  My mom then spray painted the wood a brown color and painted some pirate decorations on it.  Hailey loves it!  My mom also found a little box that looks like a treasure chest and spray painted it brown as well.  We bought some pirate stickers to decorate it and gold coins to go in it.  I jokingly told her not to bury the treasure box in my garden.  I say jokingly, because when I was little I decided to bury a treasure box of my own (a plastic recipe card holder) in my parents' garden (I was inspired by the Boxcar Children books).  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to "discover" my treasure, because my dad "discovered" it first and wasn't too happy about it! :-)

  Practicing

Plank decorations

Treasure box

Here's a video of her attempting to keep her balance after bending down to touch her toes!

We also got some vegetables and herbs planted in the garden...at least the ones that can withstand a frost!  We planted broccoli, carrots, and beets for the vegetables and tarragon, sage, and oregano for the herbs.

 Here's the broccoli...I'm hoping all these will fit in here, but I may end up having to remove a couple.  I planted the carrots & beets in the middle bed (you'll see a little bit of garlic coming up in the right corner of the middle bed).

Tarragon, Sage, and Oregano (Chives in the pot). I'll plant more herbs in front of these once the weather gets warmer.