It Always Starts So Simply...

Tomorrow is Issa's first ever birthday party with her friends. We are both more than a little excited. She has settled on a tea party theme, and we are big believers in keeping it simple...or so I thought.

 

Issa asked for a pinata as one of her two party activities. Sure! Then, in typical Issa fashion, she announced she didn't want to whack it. Of course. We did some looking, and you can get pinatas that have strings you just pull, but they are crazy expensive (for a pinata at least), so I decided to just convert a regular pinata. I envisioned this being a ten minute project. Wrongo!

 

It all started so simply with this little guy:

 Just a regular, teapot pinata. Then, I cut a trap door in the bottom:

 This is much harder than I thought. Trying to cut a hole without tearing the tissue took some work. But, it was accomplished! Then we moved onto filling--thank you dollar bins at Wally-world:

 Yep, folks, those are snap bracelets! And bubble rings:

 And lip gloss rings:

 And all manner of cheap bracelets and other rings (not all pictured to save your sanity):

 And candy necklaces:

 And finally fun mints:

 The idea is that the girls can don their pinata treasures (along with the hats they will make as the first activity) for the tea party proper.

Once the pinata was stuffed, I cut two slits in the flap and then threaded long ribbons through:

 I did four really long ribbons, leaving eight ends for the seven kids that are coming. The first ribbon was tough to get through, but the other three were much easier since the first one helped guide them through.

Then, I pushed the flap inside the pinata and put a few toothpicks inside the flap to hold it in:

 It's amazingly sturdy, but I have no doubts a couple good tugs and the flap will rip or the ends of the picks will break. I did use toothpicks that are only pointy on one end. The point slid into the layers of the pinata relatively easily, but the dull ends just seem less dangerous.

I was left with a ribbon pinata:

And it only took an hour and a half. I couldn't get a good picture without hanging it, but I will be sure to take one tomorrow. I'm sure there will be a hilarious post after the party. For now, I'm off to make teacup cakes!