Pinata Summer

We made pinatas this summer. It started with a really messy afternoon of paper mache goo and paper strips. The kids cut most of the strips themselves. They also made most of the mess themselves.

It was taking them a really long time to cover their balloons, so I had to step in and show them how to slap that soggy paper on!

I think Nathan was our best junior paper mache artist!


Eventually, we got all 5 balloons covered and hung them out to dry. I wondered if anyone caught a glimpse of our alien pods hanging in the backyard. Those are going to be some monster bugs when they hatch!



Several days later, we took the pinatas back outside to paint. It was another messy job and Joseph was a little cranky. He kicked more than one pinata while we working. It was a trick to avoid the wet paint he was sending through our circle!


We had poster paints, dot paints and glitter to use. We had to accept the newpaper print as part of the decoration because it wasn't going to be possible to completely cover it.



Yes, potty training means we'll have our hands in our underwear. Ah, memories!



And were weren't the only ones painting! Look at the pretty colors painted in the sky above us that day.


Over the course of several weeks, we filled and busted open our pinatas. We made a trip to the dollar store where the kids each picked out toys/candy for their own pinatas. Each one was filled by it's owner a few minutes before we headed out to the front yard to smash it to pieces.


Chad was the official pinata manager. We used a bunch of salvaged baling string...tied together to get enough length. It was all fun and games until the pinatas came crashing down from the string before they were open. The first one was actually hanging from the string. The rest were mostly harnessed into the string. We got pretty creative with supporting balloon-shaped pinatas in cradles of string!



Of course, the best part was the actual swinging/hitting/breaking that goes along with pinatas. Joseph usually got the first swings and it went to the next older person from there. We tried to let the person that owned the pinata be the one that actually destroyed it.



Daniel is making as if Leah's swing is going to be "the one."


For the most part, the kids shared the spoils pretty fairly. Some of the candy was better than others. And that goes for the toys, too. I have thrown a lot of them away by now.


But it was a great way to spend the summer. We'll have to do it again...in a couple of years or so.


This shot of Joseph on our last night of pinatas shows the fun the kids all had!