signs

So we have all these old cans of paints that the previous homeowners left in the basement... many of them colors that weren't even on the walls when WE bought the house (Like that yellow, for instance. That pink, unfortunately was. I'll have to post a picture of the pink room sometime. Even the closet door and ceiling and the CEILING FAN BLADES). We've opened the cans up to dry them out to dispose of them.

Then I thought... Hmm... we have all these random boards they left lying around the backyard, what if I used some of these old paints to slather them in bold colors, then painted fun signs to hang from the fence around our pool/yard/garden.

So I did. Paint them bold colors.

And now I'm trying to decide what fun sayings/pictures to paint ON them. Ideas?

Happy May Day!

It was a muggy, windy and overcast day, but we managed to joyfully welcome May, anyhow. I've been quite busy and stressed out, so didn't quite do ALL the things I had planned for our festivities, but I did enough! The party lasted over 2 hours, which included dinner.

I made the floral wreaths for the girls out of dollar store leis... bought a pack of 3 for a dollar and then trimmed them to fit their heads. The extra flowers were then glued to their homemade May Baskets!

I pilfered bells from the Christmas jingle bells I use with my preschool students to tie around our ankles for the Morris Dancing. This was one of the favorite activites... the girls created their own pattern (tap sticks, shake the bells three times, skip three times, repeat)

and giggled, giggled, giggled.

We all twirled around the Maypole, which eventually turned into the girls RUNNING around the Maypole.

Then I held the Maypole and they twirled around ME, wrapping me up in the ribbons. They all got a big kick out of that.

Trying to get the "May Hoop" to go straight was a challenge. There were a lot of tongues sticking out in concentration, and again, a lot of giggling.

Giggling. This to me is the sound of success.

Happy May Day!

May Day, delayed

We finally managed to have our May Day party on Sunday, two days late. Only one of the neighbor girls could attend, but the May Queen had had enough of waiting and putting it off, and would wait no more. Bad weather was threatening, and we had already had a spot or two of rain, so we quickly danced around the may pole before heading in for some crafts.

The party was decidedly more low key than last year, and I didn't feel as prepared or "on" as I did at our first annual celebration. But The May Queen was thrilled, and even came up with some crafts on her own that she led us in (like making fairies out of only pipe cleaners and dragonflies out of paper and paperclips)
The flower friend fairies were fun to make and turned out very cute. The craft that was supposed to be made out of prints from flower petals was a complete and utter bust... the petals made a gross mess all over the paper, and that was that.

The flowers from the soda bottles were the biggest hit, and very fun to make.

As we were working on the crafts it began to rain. We sat on our porch and enjoyed the sound on the metal roof. I stepped inside to wash some paint brushes in the sink when I heard this loud banging from the porch. The girls began yelling. "There's ICE falling from the sky!"

Now, I don't think it's supposed to HAIL at a May Day party. It just seems wrong. Hail the size of rubber bouncy balls fell from the sky, and bounced through the grass. I tried to get pictures, but failed.

Then the hail stopped, and rain came down about as hard as I've ever seen. Can you see it streaming down, over the sides of our gutters? It was impressive. And LOUD. Thunder rolled. The wind blew the rain in through the screens and we quickly scooped up our crafts and moved them inside to dry.

And then I think we played hide and seek.

The May Queen thinks the party was a success. And thus, so do I.
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Thank you for your kind words of encouragement on my last post. Things went much better at our final dress rehearsal tonight, including the light. We even had a small, invited audience. The director overheard one lady as she left. She said "They were all good, but that young lady was brilliant." BRILLIANT. Somehow, I feel a little better.
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Next Monday's Mission is to write a post that contains as many Song Titles as possible. Mad has informed me that she is planning to win The Most Song Titles in a Blog Post Ever prize. That sounds like a challenge to me. The gauntlet has been thrown down. Will YOU rise to the occasion?

May Day songs, crafts and activities

This time of year the traffic on my blog goes way up as people are searching for all things Maypole and May Day. So in an effort to give the masses what they want, I thought I'd post what I plan to do at our may day festivities this year. You're welcome, internets. (And sorry... I should have done this sooner. I have been a bit busy.)

First of all I'll pull the May Pole out of the closet, where it has sat since last year. I made it out of a broom handle by winding ribbon around the pole and securing with tape, then tying several long ribbons to the loop in the top. I jerry-rigged a stand by putting the pole in a cup full of rocks inside a bucket full of rocks. Then I tossed some flowers on top of the rocks to make it look pretty. Admittedly, after a few times around the pole it came loose and got a little wobbly. I will try to come up with a better system this year.
Last year the girls loved just going around the pole. They did it over and over and over. If they seem in the mood maybe this year I'll have them sing:

Ring around the Maypole
with flowers from the fairies we stole
Ribbons, Ribbons
We wind around!

You can find more songs here.


It is said that fairies are a bit easier to find on May Day, and so this year I plan to do more fairy crafts. Like these flower friends and petal fairies I found at Family Fun. Maybe we'll even make a fairy house.


Since our guests may not still have their floral crowns from last year I think I'll make floral headbands by hot gluing felt flowers on plastic headbands

I think we'll make some cool flowers out of soda bottles. See a photo tutorial here.

We may color some coloring sheets that I found here, here, and here.





If I have enough empty glass bottles around I may decorate with these May "Baskets." Find more may basket ideas at The Crafty Crow




If that's not enough ideas for you, you can check out last year's May Day party plan and learn why I call myself Painted Maypole, and thus have adopted May Day as my blog's official holiday.

With all this May Day hullabaloo, I have to confess that on the actual day I will not be dancing around the Maypole, but rather I'll be dancing around jazz fest. We'll celebrate over the weekend, and I hope to have some pictures to post then.

Happy May Day!

Witch ahead in polls

The Candidates

Recent polls indicate that in the race for this year's Halloween T-shirt the witch is ahead in the polls, although some critics think it is too DISsimilar to the current witch T-shirt administration. "It's different than my last one," The May Queen commented, "and different than yours, too, mommy." Mommy commented "yes, I forgot to paint the moon first, and so had to make it smaller and not behind the witch. But I added the bats. Nice touch, huh?" Despite the disconcerting differences, in the informal poll taken this afternoon during the change out of your church clothes hour the folks being polled voted decidedly for the witch shirt.

The Incumbent

However, the tie dyed jack-o-lantern T-shirt cannot be completely disregarded. The May Queen was delighted when it was first introduced. "You MADE it for ME, Mommy?" she asked, and quickly moved to inspect all the various faces.

Of course, we won't know for sure until the real polls close on election day, October 31st. The shirt that wins the coveted spot that day will surely wear its victory well.

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This post has been a Monday Mission. This week's mission, should you choose to accept it, is to write a post in the style of Campaign Coverage. If you write a Monday Mission post please link to it in the widget below.





Join us next week, when our mission is to write a post in the style of the plot summary for a horror movie.

(and I can't help but point out this fabulous piece of REAL campaign news: Colin Powell is endorsing Barack Obama! His interview is wonderful, and his endorsement is explained in thoughtful and kind terms, as you would expect of him.)