Test Tube Pinata

When Parker said he wanted to do a science birthday party (OK, I may have put the idea in his head, but it's awesome), I started hunting around Pinterest for inspiration.

We always do a pinata. It's kind of become a tradition. This is what we came up with. Awesome right?!?

I found this post by Homemade Mamas, I knew we'd have to make a test tube pinata. In the original post, they used a large balloon to make the shape, but I couldn't find one.

We had to come up with something. My neighbor suggested using a bunch of regular balloons taped together in a tube shape. I of course, had to one-up him and come up with this. A single balloon stuffed into one end of a Coors Light box. I opened the box and turned it inside out, so that the words wouldn't show through the tissue paper (I can't have all the other parents at the party thinking we're a bunch of drunks now, can I?).

I taped the balloon in place and mixed up some paper mache - just flour, water and a little Elmer's glue. My little helpers got nice and messy helping me tear the newspaper into strips and slathering it with our paste.

We kept working until we ended up with this.

 

 

It was really wet and we let it dry for a couple days. It was probably ready in 24 hours, but we left it be for good measure.

 

Next, it was time for decorating. I cut lots of strips of tissue paper (I had three sheets of green on hand and also used about four of white). 

 



Keep cutting until you have something like this.

Then I started glueing the strips starting with the green end. I used seven (yep seven!) glue sticks. Make sure you overlap each piece as you move around the pinata.

Keep going and keep glueing. When I finished, I decided to use the Homemade Mamas' version as inspiration and added hashmarks and numbers to six, since Parker was turning six.

It was a total hit - literally. How cute is my little niece hitting it?

And Dillon and his little buddy getting playful while waiting for that thing to break? Cute. Right? It was pretty strong and lasted through about 15 kids. So there was some waiting happening.

Stay tuned for an overview of the party. It was pretty amazing.