Pinatas. I never had one at any of my birthday parties growing up. Actually, I never even went to a birthday party where they had one. Weird. As an adult, almost every kid-party I've been to has a Pinata. Maybe it's a backlash. Growing up as Pinata-deprived children we feel the need, in adulthood, to include a Pinata at every birthday celebration.

If that's the explanation, it's probably at least in part to rub it into our own parents. "See how happy Janey is whacking away at her Pinata? Yeah, don't you think I would have been happy to have a Pinata at my birthday parties? Yeah, I would have. But nooo, you were too busy with your crochet projects and your decoupage to think about my happiness! Yeah, that's right Mom ? you can't crochet happiness!"

I don't know. Personally, I can't say that I was bothered by not having a Pinata ? I'm sure I knew what they were, but having one never really seemed like an option. In my day, the picture books tended to show things with more of an ethnic slant. As a result, all the Pinatas I saw were being enjoyed by barefoot Mexican children wearing sombreros and peasant dresses. Wow, times change.

Even though I don't resent my parents for excluding me from the international delights that a Pinata would have provided, I tend to agree with the "no party is complete without one" notion that seems to be in vogue these days. In fact, I've even made a few Pinatas for my niece and nephew's birthday parties. Number five is due to the "client" August 24.

The first Pinata I made was a dump truck. Waaaay too complicated for my a first attempt! In the end, it looked pretty good, but it was hard to make ? actually, pretty hard in general. Meaning that it took an awful lot of dead-on strikes, sans blindfold even, to get to the payload. Of course, since it was for my nephew's first birthday, that could have been due to the age of the participants.

The second Pinata I made was a star. It was really easy to make since I used a star-shaped balloon as a base. The star Pinata was covered in fringed yellow crepe paper, and had colored streamers coming of each point. The whole thing went swimmingly, except for the fact that crepe paper turns to a gooey mess when applied with white glue. Yuck.

For my third attempt I went out on a limb, or stem, as it were, and designed a large flower. A pansy to be exact. This Pinata kicked ass! I covered a star-shaped balloon with a one coat of papier-mache and connected each "arm" with a cardboard web to form petals. After it dried, I covered the whole thing with another coat of papier-m?ch?. I used four different colors of crepe paper ? two different purples, yellow for the center and green for the streamer that hung down as a stem. Very cool.

Last year my nephew wanted a shark. Okay, getting a little complicated. It was a bit of a challenge to get the base shape. I ended up using those long balloons that clowns (i hate clowns by the way) use to make balloon animals. I bent two in half and rubber-banded the suckers together to get the front part of the body. The tail and fins were constructed separately, and papier-mached together after they hardened. On whole I'd say it turned out pretty good. I attached the grey fringed crepe paper with rubber cement, which made a huge difference! As in, lots easier! Additionally, the purchase of a house with a basement made construction and clean-up a breeze.

This year my nephew's party theme is Buzz Lightyear. I haven't seen either Toy Story movie, so I'm planning to make a big ball and tell the kids it's a planet. Heh, heh, just kidding! From looking at the party favors, I think I should be able to come up with a fairly convincing LGM. I'm going to hit Toys R Us tonight and see if they have a LGM action figure I can copy. Getting the right color crepe paper may be a challenge though.

I know, I know. You're all thinking, don't they sell Pinatas? And it would be a lot easier to just go out and buy one?

Hah, I say! Where's the challenge in that? Besides, anyone taking the time to read this really doesn't have a leg to stand on in the useful ways to spend free time department. Besides, it's fun. And messy. Good, messy fun with flour-based paste.

Besides, it's a lot cooler than crocheting ? right?