<h1 class="entry-title"><font size="5">Don't Bother Knocking, No Vacancies Here</font></h1>

The "Zoo Hotel" has been at full capacity for two weeks. It all started when Poppa arrived on May 15. During his visit, we went hiking,

dove into mud piles,

ate handfuls of dirt,

picked Dandelions (this activity is never ending),

planted the Garden,
Before

and after.

On the Friday, Poppa left in the morning and Uncle Andrew and Kevin arrived in the afternoon for the "Second Annual Men's Long Work Weekend".

As usual, we got tons of work done. Most importantly, (in my opinion and seeing that I'm the author of this blog, what I say goes), the boys spent all of Sunday "preparing my new craft closet". I'm sure you're thinking, what prep work is required for a craft closet besides removing the clothes, installing a table and hanging some shelves. This is The Zoo you know so nothing is quite what it seems.

First off, they had to remove the old wood stove chimney (the woodstove was removed from the basement as one of last years's work weekend projects). In doing so, they had to patch up the roof. In order to do this, they needed some matching shingles. Seeing as we didn't have any of these, they needed to remove several from another of our outbuildings. In doing so, they figured that they'd just choose to put a hole in that roof (seeing as they didn't have any shingles to replace those shingles) and install a whirlydig. After repairing all the rooves (google that one) they came inside to continue with the prep. They started with fixing the hole in the basement floor (where the fire bricks had been inset into the floor. They then fixed two ceilings and a floor. Not wanting to do things half "as good", they removed the existing asbestos tiles and replaced them with matching wood flooring (that the previous owner left behind). Here's a before picture (note that the chimney has been removed but you can see the hole in the floor). I'll post an after picture when all is said and done.

I have to admit that I don't have any pictures of people from the long weekend. I have some before and after pictures because blog post content comes before family portraits. Priorities people. I know that Kevin took some, including a video of Max running after the soccer ball (a favourite activity).

The boys left on holiday Monday and Nanna arrived in the morning on Tuesday. I think that I forgot to mention that Ed was in Edmonton (on business).

As of May 22, 2012 (seven days since planting), you can clearly see the radishes and beets peaking out, two bean plants (not sure if they're the ones that I dried out the seeds from last years crop of green beans or the yellow wax beans that I just bought) and lettuce or spinach. I'm not organized enough to have row markers (although I have great plans) but I have a system, plant things in alphabetical order; beans, beets, lettuce, onions, spinach. That was until I decided (after the fact) to plant radishes, red peppers and something else in my spare offset rows... I guess it won't matter in another week or two. I am so excited I can hardly stand it.

On Tuesday, we went out for lunch and did some errands. Thankfully, the kids were better behaved than for Uncle Eric's birthday party.

On Sunday, May 27, Rene and Sidney came for Pancake breakfast and then we all went to the Dandelion Festival. We caught an interactive puppet show (some of the puppets were human, they spoke a ton of French) and visited with the animals from the Sunny Acres Barnyard Zoo (in Spencerville). The kids loved petting and holding the rabbits and guinea pigs.

In the evening, Uncle Fred came for a leg of lamb dinner (one of my favourites!) so we got out Nanna's and my Nanna's jewellery box and got dressed up for the occasion.

And this morning, Nanna left for the cottage and the kids did some interior decorating. I knew that they were too quiet...

The Joys of Being Two Years Old!

  Besos, The Zoo