A trip around the May pole

Oooh...so many pictures to share today! Today is May Day, and at Liam's school, they always have a celebration. Last year Liam was in the 3-day preschool class, and they had their own May Day celebration where they only danced around the May pole. Since he's in 5-day this year, he got to do the big celebration with the entire school.

There was a scavenger hunt in the meadow to open the festivities. Each child found several things from nature hidden among the green of the meadow and the trees that border it. Then came the snack. Lemon cupcakes with creamy frosting. Jonah, I think, enjoyed this more than anything else. After the sweet treats, each class danced and sang around their respective May poles, and the older children also did some other ring-dancing, singing, and music playing. Finally, the students took turns swinging at the pinatas that they had made, one for each class. The preschool pinata proved to be a little tougher than we'd all anticipated, so the parents eventually took turns whacking at it. Jonah was the most excited about the prospect of swinging at the pinata that he went so far as to find his own stick. I helped him swing, so I have no pictures of that to show. Once the pinata finally broke open, there were treats inside for each of the children of wooden figures and candy. When the pinata for the other preschool class was knocked down, there was a unified squeal of delight and a mad rush for the bags of goodies that had been knocked down. The children's joy was just so wonderful.

Part of what I loved so much about today was just the timeless nature of the whole event. The children dressed like little Christopher Robin in galoshes while running about. Many of the children were wearing flower wreaths with ribbons streaming from the back. One class had made theirs from a felt band decorated with felt shapes. So many of the girls wore simple smocks or skirts that could have placed them in any time period from now to back around pioneer days.

The weather for today's celebration was perfect. Hazy sunshine and then patchy clouds with temps in the mid 60s. I'm so loving this spring we're having so far!!