Party Time!

One of my boys just turned four and we had a great time preparing for the party.  I was reminded again about how so much of the enjoyment of celebrations is in the anticipation and preparation.

All you need to make a pinata is newspaper, a balloon, and flour and water mixed to a 1:1 ratio.

Then you just slather the mix onto your strips of newspaper and slap them on the balloon.  This was one of my favourite activities when I was growing up.  I am amazed at how often my mom let us do paper mache, because it is most certainly one of the messiest crafts out there!

We glued tissue paper to it after it had dried for 24 hrs.  I have to admit, I did not have high hopes for the sturdiness of our pinata, but it actually held up well!  They each got to take many swings at it before it started to give way.

Next up was the cake...my son loves baseball, so I thought I would try a simple baseball cake.  I am one of those people who sees a picture of beautifully decorated cookies or cupcakes and thinks, that doesn't look too hard, I'm sure I can do it.  Then, it ends up it is way harder than it looks and I have to tell people my children helped me decorate them!  But, this actually is as easy as it looks.  I just baked a cake in an oiled, oven-safe bowl and it came out great.

 There was a little crack, but nothing a little icing can't fix.

The finished product...don't look too closely at my stitching.

All in all we had a great celebration and it was an added bonus that the cake and pinata turned out :)