The rest of May, 2012

It was our goal in May to have our garden planted by Mother's day. If you recall from last year, Kevin and Ellie gave me a mini-garden for Mother's day. We planted it in Pleasant Grove, and it did well there, but when we moved in July our garden didn't like the change and we had little to no harvest. We also had a couple of trees and bushes die over the winter so they were on the list to do in May.

Kevin worked so hard in the yard and in the garden and Ellie worked along side him planting the new trees:



And removing the rocks from our garden base.



But of course Ellie had to do it as only Ellie can, with an imagination:


And speaking of Ellie's imagination, meet purple girl. (Notice in the background of the video her little doll on a paper with string. This is her airplane, tent combo she hand-crafted for her LaLaLoopsies.)

On May 6th - we celebrated Grams birthday a bit early. (Don't worry, we celebrated on the actual day also - tutu's and all!)



In May, school was still hanging on, although we were all ready for it to be out. Ellie struggled a bit in April and May with homework and bedtime and her attitude and I thought eight was going to be a horrible age for us. But really, after school got out (in June) Ellie's sweet personality came back and eight has been wonderful since. I think she was just done with school and the routine and I can't say I blame her.

But back to May - on the 10th the school had Little House Days. In first and second grade they read the Little House books and have this day to celebrate and learn hands-on some of the life ways during that era.


By Mother's Day I'm happy to report we had our garden ready with boxes, sprinklers, and dirt. We enriched our dirt with turkey manure and some compost. Ellie couldn't get over the fact that we were putting poop in our garden. Gross!

On Mother's Day I was treated to a "Fabulous" breakfast with the cutest waitress ever!




On May 17th Ellie's class had their spring program - and every time they are so cute. I wish I could post the entire 30 minutes because it's worth every second - but instead just one short song.


Ellie expressed interest in playing soccer for the first time in April. It's something I had wanted her to do for a long time, but she was nervous about getting hit by the ball (like both Mason and Analia had) and wasn't interested up until then. Sadly, when she finally showed interest all of the teams were full. She had friends in school on teams and she invited Parker over to play soccer in our yard. The grass was pretty wet though so they played mostly on the trampoline and ran around but they had fun. It was interesting how differently Ellie played with Parker than she does with girls and I caught glimpses into what boy/girl exchanges will be like for us in the future. I'm just glad we have a few more years before boys are all we talk about.


Ellie's spring piano program was also in May. She was excited this time to be performing on the same night as her friend that she met at piano. Ellie has lessons right after her, so they cross often and have become friends. They both did a great job. Ellie played her individual song and then did her duet with her teacher. They have fun together and Ellie continues to improve. It still makes me so happy to listen to her play.

Kevin's work started a step challenge again this year (Last year they did it and you could find Kevin walking alongside the bed at night working on his step count. This year, not so much.) and Ellie joined him the first day with a pedometer. The difference in steps between work and school was about 2000. See - we DO need recess still!


On the 27th we did our traditional Memorial day Sunday and took flowers to my dad's grave and many others where my grandparents are buried. My mom is so thoughtful and always takes flowers to the extended family that everyone else has forgotten.


I'm not going to lie - we were making plans for summer all May long, getting our yard ready, planting our garden, finishing up spring programs and signing up for a summer packed with fun.

On May 28th - Ellie and I went to get her first set of golf clubs. Summer would bring her first week of golf camp!


And on May 29th - we had growth in the garden. All of our seeds had started to sprout green growth and even it seemed to be ready to move on to June!


One random story - we had a bird hit our window so hard it left its imprint from wing to wing. Even its tail feathers were in the imprint. It is hard to see from the picture, but if you saw it in person even the details of the feathers were there. Poor bird was found later that day in the window well, but still alive. Kevin went to try to help it, but it flew out on its own. I think it was just still in shock. :D