April showers certainly ushered in beautiful May flowers for the season. How many colors are showing off in your yard? If your own lawn lacks springtime colors, take a walk in the neighborhood, visit the Botanic Garden on campus, or go for a drive to search for beautiful blooms and blossoms. Celebrate the beauty of spring with those you love this month and include some of these wacky holidays or make up a few unique, zany family ones of your own.
➤ Drum Month — Make a homemade drum to celebrate this one. Start with a clean, empty coffee can and remove the lid. Using masking tape or electrical tape, stretch strips of tape across the opening. Make at least three layers of tape for stability. Decorate the side of the can with stickers or wrap construction paper around the can and color the paper with markers. Use wooden spoons for drumsticks and get busy dropping a beat. Search online for college or high school drumline performances and treat yourself to quite a show of experienced drummers.
➤ Family Reunion Month — If you don’t have a family reunion coming up in the near future, make plans to fit in as many family visits as possible over the next several months when kids are out of school. But before you go, use a large sheet of freezer paper to create a family tree. Write names and relationships on the family tree for as far back as you can remember. Check with other relatives to fill in the missing blanks. You can even print out pictures from social media or make copies from a photo album to place in the appropriate places on the family tree diagram.
➤ Mystery Month — Celebrate a good, age-appropriate mystery with the family by reading a chapter or two each night before bedtime. Pay attention to clues and see if anyone can solve the mystery before the end of the book. Here’s a couple of my favorite kids’ chapter book mystery authors: Taryn Souders and Sheila Turnage. Read "The Mystery of the Radcliffe Riddle," "Coop Knows the Scoop," the Mo and Dale Mystery series, starting with "Three Times Lucky," or "Island of Spies." Or fit all of them in this summer … you’ll love each one.
➤ National Good Car Keeping Month — Work together to clean the inside and the outside of the car on a warm afternoon. Start with the inside so you can most definitely have fun getting a little soggy when you wash the outside. As a treat, check in with someone you know whose car needs a good shine. Offer to hand wash their vehicle or treat them to an automatic car wash and return the car fresh and clean.
➤ Tennis Month — Surround yourself with all sorts of tennis fun this month. Play tennis as a family, watch a tournament together in person or on a screen, attempt juggling with tennis balls, and play other tennis ball games. See how many games you can make up that involve a tennis ball. For starters, line up plastic water bottles like pins for a bowling game. Roll the ball towards the bottles, using your non-dominant hand. And here’s another: place a laundry basket on the floor and cover the bottom of the basket with a towel. Try to bounce the tennis ball one time on the floor such that lands in the basket next. Or one more: race around the backyard with a tennis ball on a spoon, like an old fashioned egg and spoon race. Time each person to see who can race from one side of the yard and back in the shortest time without dropping the tennis ball.
Celebrate an extra-special month of May with those you love! Get outdoors often. Watch a baseball game together. Run barefooted in the grass. Visit a farmers market. Eat fresh veggies and fruits. Don’t let springtime slip away without enjoying every minute of it!
Statesboro native Julie Lavender loves making memories with her family. She is the author of "Strength for All Seasons: A Mom’s Devotional of Powerful Verses and Prayers," "Children’s Bible Stories for Bedtime" and "365 Ways to Love Your Child: Turning Little Moments into Lasting Memories."