May Flowers

For those of you who would like an update on our potted plants, here is a picture from two days ago. From left to right, Lily (not potted), marigolds, tomatoes, morning glorys, and carrots. The oregano should have been on the right but it was blown off the porch during a very windy evening. Lily was considerate enough to fill the pot with just plain mulch...which I chucked in the mulch pile later when she wasn't looking.

Our annuals this year are impatiens, specifically the Super Sonic White New Guinea Impatiens and...

Sonic Deep Red New Guinea Impatiens. The Super Sonic have slightly larger petals. When we planted these impatiens two years ago they spread so nicely and made a thick, colorful border along our walkway.

Here is the walkway border pre-mulching and planting. We also put a mixture of flowers in the window boxes on the garage. One of the flowers is the Angelface in wedgewood blue. The other two that we put in the boxes didn't have little identifier tags so I have no idea what they are. But they're pretty.

So then the workers started shoveling the mulch for the flower beds. In addition to the walkway we have two perennial beds, a lily of the valley bed, and a bed that has some bushes along the house. That's a lot of mulch and a lot of shoveling.

When Jamison first saw this pile of mulch in our driveway he made a dive to climb to the top of it. There was absolutely no hesitation in this attempt. Lily, on the other hand, squealed "oooo what is that dirt doing in the driveway?", her tone one of utter disgust.

She did eventually want to help. She dressed for the occasion in a skirt and t-shirt. When I asked her why she chose that for yard work she replied it was because there was a flower on the skirt. duh, mama.

You will notice that Brian's car is parked oddly in the street. That's not just because of the mulch. It's also because our driveway is on a slight incline and Jamison likes to glide his tricycle down the driveway into the road (if I'm not standing at the end of the driveway to catch him). I'd rather him slam into a parked car than a moving one. Naturally, once I came up with a plan to thwart him he decided to stop his trike three feet before the end of the driveway. Hopefully he'll continue to stop three feet before the street even when the car is moved; but I doubt it.

So Brian put mulch on the walkway bed and laid out the flowers in the proper order.

Please excuse my appearance. Since I knew I was going to be getting dirty I didn't shower or do my hair. But I've been trying to get more pictures of me with my kids. So yes, I look gross, but I hope they will appreciate the memories when they're older.

I don't know what Jamie thought was so funny but I love when he laughs like this.

After the flowers were planted Lily's job was to carefully water them.

Jamie got very interested in the water. He wanted that hose very badly. Last year, during the summer, Lily tortured Jamison with the hose. He would walk in the house with a saggy diaper ad clothes plastered to his body. I am desperately hoping this year he will drench her with the hose. It's called karma sweetie.

I intervened and asked her to share the hose with Jamie. She did it but, with arms akimbo, did not approve of it.

Not much later Jamison decided he didn't want to wear shoes anymore. Since Brian had put fertilizer on the grass a few days before, Jamison had to wear shoes. Meltdown ensued and we had to go inside. After two timeouts his frustration got swept away with the river of snot from his nose and we all cuddled while watching Sesame Street.

It took Brian about three hours to spread the mulch around but the final product looks fresh and clean.