Pinata Making

Axel asked for a pinata for his birthday.  I said no problem you got it.  Axel clarified: "I want my OWN pinata for my birthday, where no one else gets to hit it".  I said, no way, you gotta share.  After several weeks of debate/tearful discussion on the matter, we came to a solution.  Our party would have a very small guest list, and every kid would gets their own homemade pinata to smash up. Pinatas are actually pretty easy and cheap to make, here are the steps:

Use balloons to create the main body shape, 

and then wrap with strips of wet newspaper with a paper mache technique:

Each of the layers dries completely before adding another.  I limited it to only three layers since I have horrible childhood memories of "the unbreakable homemade pinata", where we literally once had to use a saw to cut it open, NOT the best party activity for five year olds. . . 

legs can be added with any crafty material available, in this case toilet paper rolls

Once everything dries give it a quick layer of primer

My absolute favorite part was stuffing them with candy - We had WAY too much of course! :)

By this point Axel became interested in the process and he actually helped decorate

Axel and Peyton decided we should create four little one-eyed aliens:

The Final Result!!