May Crowning

To celebrate May, the month of Mary, we had a small May Crowning in our backyard Mary Garden. I told Eliana about how growing up, the 2nd graders got to help with the May crowning and were allowed to wear their First Communion dresses. I offered to let her wear her dress for our ceremony, and she was happy to have a chance to put it on. We made a crown out of clovers, while Will and Laney both gathered bouquets of flowers from the yard. After singing "Immaculate Mary" (or listening to it on my phone), Eliana crowned Mary with our flowers. Then we said a prayer and a Hail Mary. We declared Mary the queen of our home. It was a beautiful little prayer time and something that I hope we can do again in the years to come. It took all month, but I finally made time for the May crowning the last day in May!

Hatching chicks

Our friends the Monniers had gotten some chicken eggs to watch hatch.  Holly is such a fun mom and found a program that is usually for school classrooms but had converted to home activities since the schools are shut down. But this program gives you fertilized eggs, and incubator, brooder, and egg viewer, plus lesson plans to go along with the chickens. You watch the chickens grow inside the eggs for a couple of weeks, then get to keep the chicks for a week after they hatch.  Then the chicks head back to the farm. How cool is that?!

Due to a planned power outage to replace an electric pole, the Monniers needed someone with electricity to babysit their eggs so the incubator could be plugged in. Of course, my kids were super happy to have them come to our house.  The girls showed us the four chicks that had already hatched, then we babysat the two eggs in the incubator. We only had the eggs for four hours, but amazingly during that time, one egg hatched! It was so neat to watch. The kids were really excited.

The four chicks that already hatched. They are named (not in any particular order) Rosie, Nugget, Chipmunk, and something else...

My kids decided to name this chicken Cocoa. The Monniers were very nice and let the chicken keep the name. According to Rick, he was planning on naming it General Tso.

This picture is not about the chicks, but on the same day, we got our first delivery from our CSA. Included were delicious  farm fresh strawberries. Laney said, "This one is as big as my hand!"

Hiking at Battelle Darby Creek

On a beautiful weekend day last week, the kids and I went for a hike at Battelle Darby Creek metro park while David worked.  We were on the hunt for our state amphibian - the spotted salamander. It is endangered, but this metro park is one place you can still find it. Eliana was supposed to have a field trip here with school, so she asked in particular to go for a hike here.  We had a really nice time (despite some complaints of tired legs), and it was wonderful to get out of the house for a while. I think a family hike is the second best thing to a school field trip.

My hiking crew. This picture was taken at the very start of the hike (literally less than 5 minutes in). We had to take a break here for snacks because Will and Laney were "starving!"

Gabby caught a ride in the Ergo and slept the whole hike until lunch.

Checking out Big Darby Creek. Note Laney holding up her baby doll to show here the river.

The water was rushing because of all the rain we had had.

Checking out the new portrait mode on my new phone.

Daddy’s princess