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!

Name that Maypole

Last night the May Queen and I were reading bedtime stories, when she pointed at this picture and said "Look, a maypole!"Indeed. Can you guess which book it's from? (It's a detail of a larger illustration)

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!

The first of May

The first of May will quickly come

Where has the past year gone?
How can it be in four short days
This May will have its dawn?

Like ribbons round the tall may pole
the days and months do swirl
A weave of color life creates
each day with my sweet girl
So come this weekend and you'll spy
The sweet May Queen and me
With ribbons 'round the broom handle
as we dance and leap with gleeJoin us as we welcome spring:
a fairy you may find
a-dancing in our garden fair
as round the pole we wind.
*all photos from our 2008 May Day celebration

This post has been a Monday Mission, in which I shamelessly asked you to write a post in the style of a May Day poem or song to help me celebrate the holiday I've adopted as my own here at Painted Maypole. If you choose to so humor me, please leave a little link in the widget below




And if you'd like to use this little nifty button on your blog, you may

And May is upon us, which means a whole new month of missions. I think after May we will take a break for the summer, so let's make this a fun month, shall we? Your May Missions, should you choose to accept them, are to write posts in the style of

5/4 - a cast list. Take a book or story or play or TV show and cast it... with fellow bloggers or your favorite actors. Play casting director for the day. This fun idea comes to you courtesy of No Mother Earth, who cast bloggers in a book she was reading.

5/11- song titles. See how many song titles you can jam into one blog post. In high school my best friend and I used to write stories this way all the time. It passed the time in our boring classes. I had the idea when I was on a streak of titling all my blog posts with song lyrics. I have to say, I am rubbing my hands in glee over this one.

5/18- a discussion between characters/bloggers/historical figures. Mad did this brilliantly, and I thought it would be fun to imagine a conversation between characters from different sources.

5/25- a "What I did on my summer vacation" essay. Yes, before summer vacation.

Blogger seeking designer

Me: A blogger with a boring standard blogger template You: A blog designer who can read my mind and change my life (or at least my blog). Us: Let's color the world together.


This has been a Monday Mission, a post written in the style of a want ad. Write your own Monday Mission and post a link to your post in the widget below:

(If the widget doesn't appear - leave a note in the comment and I'll add links in)

- I'm being held hostage is looking for some help

-Melissa at Taking what is Left has her own time sensitive search

-Mary Beth at Cats...books...life is good has a sports themed want ad

-Helen could truly use some online help



Next week's mission, to write a post in the style of a house listing. And thanks to those who have given me ideas for future Monday Missions. Keep those ideas coming.

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And look! My want ad has been answered (OK, OK, you caught me. I had been working on this already....) Don't you just LOVE my new blog design? I am SO excited about it. It makes me feel happy and all spring-like. I was going to wait to unveil it until May Day, but I'm too excited. So instead, think of it as an invitation to come back here and celebrate May Day with me. What will we be doing? Well, besides dancing around the maypole, I'm not entirely sure, but I think there may be a giveaway involved. Hmmm... So come back May 1st and check it out.

In the meantime, check out Ashley at The Cutest Blog on the Block, who did this stunning design. She has lots of free templates on her blog, or you can have her custom do one for you. She's a miracle worker. She took this rough crayon drawing of mine...

(please ignore the train coloring sheet that was on the back of the paper and showed through when I scanned it...)

...and turned it into this template. Genius. So what are you waiting for? Go spruce up your own blog. It's blogher ad revenue well spent.

Oh wait. Leave me a comment about how much you love it first, THEN go check her out. :)

is it safe to dance without hats?

I've been doing a bit of research for the upcoming May Day, and one thing I learned is that there is some dancing around the maypole in this video of one of the greatest dance songs ever. Enjoy.