Como se dice Pin-YAAH-TAAH?

Many moons ago I decided that Cindy and I should make a pinata. The reason being that Cindy has always been obsessed with them. She sees them in funny videos on TV, she saw one in Napoleon Dynamite, then of course there is that obnoxious Verizon Wireless commercial where TONS of candy comes forever pouring out of that broken donkey. (She loves that commercial- I am sure she even dreams about it at night) Plus, she has never actually had the chance to hit one. Ever. So we decided to correct this massive injustice. Therefore, I reached back into my cranial file of "things I vaguely remember how to do" and remembered that I learned how to make pinatas when I was a young teen. In fact, for the ward Christmas party in the Lakeland Chapel cultural hall in 1990-something, I made a three-tiered snowman that was INDESTRUCTIBLE- I seriously put about ten layers of glue and paper on it and that thing needed a cherry bomb to be taken down. But the object of letting every ward member have a whack at it was accomplished, thank you very much. Anyway, it only took 4 months, but hey, you can't be too careful when making and destroying a fish pinata. So here are the highlights of our whacking fiesta:

This was from when we started to make the pinata. All you need is a balloon, some flour and water for the glue, and strips of newspaper. And a deep abiding love for the pinata you are making.

Once it's dry, the balloon is popped and and that little whole is where you load in all your (and I quote from Cindy)"candy, treats and and messages." She was a little scared when we popped the balloon- she was expecting a loud sound, but no sound really came out, just as I told her.

I am still in shock she wanted to make the fish pink- who would have guessed? On goes the tissue paper and glue!

Purple eyes? This is a Princess fish!

Actually, it kinda looks like a creepy-eyed Easter egg

We attached some fins and a tail, to dispel the egg look-a-like factor


Cindy's only rules for me were: "No blindfolds and just only me can hit it." Oh brother. I only obliged her on the first rule. She was just too excited about this.

I should have reinforced the part where we hung the string on it. It didn't take long before it was on the floor.

But after some clever Mom ingenuity I had it back up, and Luke was ready with Uncle Brian's drumstick to give the "pih-tah-tah" a few more wallops. These were some good times for Luke.



Finally it broke, spilling all the goodies on the floor- which got consumed in such quantities at about 5pm that it turned out to be dinner, so lucky me, I didn't really have to make anything. Another piece of advice for that parenting book I'm writing...

As we made the pinata, Cindy kept saying it looked like a shower hat. (I think she has been watching way too many Pink Panther classic cartoons where the wives all wear slippers, housecoats and those shower hats that are pink and fuzzy) But once Luke put it on for a hat- I had to agree, it kinda does look like that.

But actually, what I really learned from this experience is that my garage looks like a bomb went off in it. Sakes alive, man! I have got to clean that out. Truly. Hopefully that will be the next thing I blog about....