-Pablo Picasso

In life, everything is a blank canvas, patiently waiting for someone, anyone, to pick up a brush and breathe life into it. For years, I have seen my muted brown, wooden, garden fence as a canvas screaming for help.

garden fence BEFORE kids painting party

Last Friday, I finally listened.

I find beauty in children, in color and in the chaos of mixing them. So, I decided to invite the neighborhood kids over for a new age, Tom Sawyer fence painting party.

I spent the day on a mission to find a variety of paints, preferably for free. As it turns out, Home Depot is the best place to do this. I was able to get a variety of unwanted or mis-tinted quart and gallon size paints for $1-$5 a piece. This jackpot combined with unwanted, old paint donations from friends and family resulted in a palette of more than ten colors including red, white, purple, green, gray and yellow.

At 5pm on Friday, moms and kids, dressed in their best old painting t-shirts,  found their way through our front door. We devoured chicken, salad, wine, milk and apples.

Home to the evil wasps that attacked my friend!

After an extreme bee attack, resulting in 12 bee stings, 1 spilled glass of milk, 6 terrified children, 1 empty box of benadryl, multiple empty wine glasses and 1 miserable, very uncomfortable but luckily not allergic mom, we decided to break open the paint.

The painting ground rules where simple:

• Take off your shoes (and your clothes if your mom approves and requests)
• One brush per color
• Don’t eat the paint
• Minimize paint on anything that is not the fence (ie rocks, trees and grass)

Kids, when presented with a group project involving anything potentially hazardous or uncontrollably chaotic, will work with super human speed. Within one minute of the first paint can being opened the 12 kids had organized and unananmoulsy agreed to a “splatter” technique. Within ten minutes, they had converted to a “paint a body part and rub the body part on the fence” technique. Within 30 minutes, it was clear that only one rule was going to be followed (don’t eat the paint). Within 45 minutes, they announced that they were done and ready to bathe.

On Saturday morning, I looked out the window and took stock of my new fence. Its fantastic and full of light and laughter.

I only need to put some finishing touches and I will say it’s “done” and ready to house our Heirloom Vegetable Seeds!

Thank you neighbors and friends for all of your energy and work.

Thank you Steph for the wine, chicken and for taking one (or 12) for the team. Thank you Persephone for the wine and salads. Thank you dad for the paint and brushes. Thank you Tom for killing the bees. Thank you God for garden hoses,  grass that doesn’t die from paint and parents willing to let their kids get messy.

current garden renovation costs: $70
Weed mowing $60
Paint for fence $10