Spring Has Sprung

May is a busy month for us. Kara's birthday is the 3rd (34!), nine days later is Maggie's (6!) and five days later Emma turns 5! Frank's birthday is the 5th (66!). Apple Blossom is that weekend so traffic in Winchester will be terrible (but the mall parking lot will be practically empty! Hmmm...) Brenda and Frank will be coming for a 2-week visit and Mother's Day is the 13th. Ward and Catina's 3rd wedding anniversary is the 14.

Not all of those things will affect me directly - Frank's birthday, Apple Blossom and Ward and Catina's anniversary - but they are on my calendar and I think about them. I like to make cards, so I'll send birthday and anniversary cards. It's a labor of love. I like to have family gatherings and celebrate everyone's everything. We'll celebrate Kara's, Maggie's and Emma's birthdays as well as Mother's Day. Lots of picnic-type food! Yummmmm.

May is a sweet-smelling month. We have some huge bushes in the yard that emit a lovely scent. The breeze brings it into the house when the windows are open. The lilac bushes are blooming and they smell so wonderful. The redbud trees are blooming. They are such a beautiful color and when the sun is shining and the sky is getting dark with rain clouds, their pinkish/reddish/magenta-ish color stands out brilliantly. The dogwoods are so starkly white that they seem to pop out of the scenery. The grass is a gorgeous emerald green. When we've finished mowing, the whole yard looks so beautiful and smells so great! I love that newly cut grass smell.

Maggie and Emma have been riding their bikes all over the yard. It brings back so many memories of Kara and Justin and their bike-riding days. Justin loved to erect some type of ramp so that he could "do a pop-a-wheelie". I think Emma would be the next one to try something like that. She has been zooming all over the yard, up the bank to the old garden then down again, flying over the driveway, bumping up and down the ruts and skidding to a stop. What a huge grin on her face! Maggie, on the other hand, is flying down the slope, heading for the ditch where the tree is, turning at the last possible moment and flying up the bank to the old garden. Her face is bright and she is so full of life. I can only remember my own experiences on a bike when I was a kid. Sometimes I wish I had a bike so I could ride with them. On second thought...