Happy May Day!

Did/Do you and your children deliver May baskets? Do people do that anymore?

When my kids were younger, we made May baskets every year. Some years we used the plastic little baskets that strawberries came in. Some years we used large styrofoam cups with pipe cleaner hangers. We'd lace ribbon through the strawberry baskets or tie ribbon around the foam cups, and we'd also add stickers to the cups. Then we'd tie a "Happy May Day" note on the handle and fill it with popcorn and candy.

When the kids were little, they took the baskets to Sunday School, Preschool & Kindergarten. As they got a little older we delivered baskets the fun way....the sneaky way! They would put a basket with their friends name on it at the door to their home. Then they'd knock on the door and run away, trying to be sure the friend didn't see them. There was several girls the same age as my daughters who did this, which made it even more fun.

I really miss this. We had so much fun on May Day! I always parked like a block or two away from the particular house they were delivering to, and I had the most fun watching the huge smiles on their faces as they ran back to the car.

I remember one year Ashley set the basket down, rang the doorbell and took off like a shot behind the houses to run through the back yards. When she got to the road, she saw a 3' fence between her and our car. No gymnast has ever gone over the vault as quickly as she flew over that fence! I laughed so hard!

Another year, Chelsea wanted to deliver to a friend who lived on a farm...with a loooooong lane. There was no way she was ever going to be able to run from their door to our car without being seen, so she had to be sneaky. This friend had 2 rows of trees that were in a line along one side of the house and they went all the way to the road. After she set the basket down and knocked on the door, she took off and ran inbetween the trees. She seemed to have vanished. We couldn't see her and had no clue where she was. All of a sudden we saw her...or should I say the evidence of where she was. Each of those trees was full of dozens and dozens of birds. Each time she'd run to a tree, all these birds would come flying out. Next tree, more birds, and so on until she made it to the road. Oh my goodness, it was so funny. The mother who lived in that house called me later and said she and her husband stood at their window and watched Chelsea trying to be so sneaky and hiding from tree to tree. She said it made their day.

My girls still talk about how much fun it was to make May Baskets and I'm so glad we did that. Austin, being a boy enjoyed it until he got to about 2nd grade. Then he was not cool with it anymore, but I'm still glad we had a couple of years of fun with him.

If you haven't done this with your children, I really recommend it. You'll be so glad to have those fun, silly memories!