May Day 2017

This year's May Day was a "grin and bear it" kind, as I was in between surgery #1 and surgery #2 and had the 24/7 uncomfortableness of the stent.  Oy!  The things you do for those you love, even when you are not feeling 100%.  Thank God for His grace and strength.  The kids did 99% of the prep!  They needed a little help with set up  and the idea, but they carried it all out after that.  Ariel rocked the prep this year, since Melody and Fone were busy with their play.  And, for the actual carrying it out, I got to play chauffeur, which was doable for me too.  

(You probably wonder HOW DO YOU DO May Day with a crew of kids and the busyness of a large family living and homeschooling PLUS dealing with health issues.  Come check out my write up over at Cuppa Catholic....  it's "Easy as 1, 2, 3"!)

**the prep**

**ding and dash day**

++Thank you, Lord, for your grace and strength and traditions like this that bond our family together in love and generosity!++

A ding-and-dash kind of day

What a fun day the kids and I had today... finishing up almost 20 May Day baskets and delivering them all to our wonderful neighbors, family and friends that live close by.  Having done May Day basket deliveries a kid myself, I *knew* I wanted to make this a tradition for my own family as well.  We are going strong on many years now, but had to miss last year, since we were on a special family vacation. Our wonderful neighbors were probably so heart-broken and worried last year, when they never got a delivery.  Well, not this year... they got the surprise of a sweet little basket of flowers on their doorstep and maybe if they were lucky, catch a glimpse of some sneaky, meddling kids.

We make up two different sets of baskets - one for families (with some sort of juice drink and a couple snacks, along with some flowers) and another set of a basket with flowers for those without young kids at home.  We made up almost 18 baskets total - we have lots of love we gotta share!!!  

Here are some pictures of what we put in the baskets and what they looked like...

 These paper plate baskets turned out so cute and were super easy to make!!!

 Printable "Happy May Day" tags

 we've used these cute tags in the past with a sweet May Day poem 

 Had to throw in a paper flower too - some cutsie paper tulips!!  

 All done and ready to go!!!!

 Close up shot of the goodies (these were the baskets we gave to families with kids)

Dinging and dashing... (I always LOVE the frantic pictures of kids running back to me as fast as they can!!)

++Praying you all have a blessed May filled with flowers, fun, and cheer!!!++

May Day 2012

April 30th is a busy day in our household.  There is a lot of crafting going on...  making paper flowers and baskets all to prepare for the next day - MAY DAY!! 

This year, we made the same paper baskets as last year, three types of paper flowers, and some of the standard cone-shaped baskets. 

For the first type of flower, we dyed coffee filters in water tinted with food coloring.  HINT - not a lot of water is needed - the more concentrated, the deeper the color on the flower.  Ours were pretty light colored this year, but it was a great lesson learned.  Before you dip it, you want to quarter the coffee filter and only dip the tip in the dye.  Then quickly turn it upright and watch the color spread - it's pretty cool!  Next, let the filters dry.  Then, bunch up the filter and tape it to a straw or popsicle stick to make it into a lovely flower. 

The second type of flower that the kids made also used coffee filters.  First the kids colored with markers all over the filters.  Then, you put the filter on a paper towel and spray lightly with a spray bottle.  The colors all spread and blend together.  Again, let dry, and then bunch up and attach to a straw or popsicle stick to make a flower. 

We loved our handprint lilies so much from last year, so we chose them as our third flower.  It is extra special making those in our house after our own "Lily", who actually curled all of them!  She's such a crafty little girl!

All 18 baskets turned out lovely!  What do you think?? 

I guess I did throw in a couple artificial flowers that I had from a few years ago when I made flower pens.  They had been sitting up in a closet collecting dust for quite some time, so I figured I'd pass them on and spruce up the baskets some.  The brown paper bag baskets went to families with little ones, so we also threw in some snacky stuff - fruit snacks, mini-Oreos, mini-Chips Ahoy, and mini-Nutter Butters.  In the cone-shaped baskets,  we threw in some Hershey's Kisses and Tootsie Rolls too.  Just a special treat for all our special neighbors, family and friends. 
  
And, now for the official day of "ding and dash"....  (note the umbrellas, wet kids and RAIN!) 

we had to "waterproof" some of the bouquets if the porches were not covered

What a wonderful, wet, memorable day it was again this year.  Thank you God for memories like this one!!