Bird House Gourd Painting

We inherited a bird house gourd last spring and had great fun painting it.  A bird even attempted to nest in it... It was full of twigs by the end of summer! The boys loved watching the little wren flying to and fro.  What fun!

Of course, the gourd was full of seeds.  We just had to plant a seed or two after we carved it.  Instructions on the web said plant seeds, water, then leave alone until you can't stand to look at them any more (or the gourds have dried).  Easy enough!  The gourds grew and grew, taking over our front yard.  It gave the neighbors something to talk about besides the weather!  By Halloween, the shriveled plants were looking nice and spooky.  We stored the gourds in our garage until last week...

This spring, our job was to decorate!  My plan was to have a neighborhood paint party but the neighbors were all busy with other things, and we wanted to get them out for May Day, so we set to work.  Another great use for the joust pole!  Note, I painted all the gourds white (old house paint) to give the boys an even background for painting.  When the kids got tired of painting, I added the spirals and had them "dot" extra colors.  We used tempera kid's paint for color (WASH OFF!).  Then I added a few coats of polyurethane for weathering.

Do we have seeds now, you betcha!  I think the squirrels got most of them. Meanwhile, the boys are excited to deliver these to neighbors in the morning...