Mindy Carlson

Soooo…. I made a Death Star pinata.

For real.

Seriously.

A Death Star Pinata.

Here it is.

 

 

Here is what it’s suppose to look like.

Let tell you. This was hard. And it took a looooong time.  3 days. And let me tell you, sweethearts, I am never doing this again.

But don’t let that stop you.

The end product was actually worth it. I felt some sort of sense of accomplishment.  Even if the newly minted 5 year old did say that it looked better with the newsprint showing.

Let me back up, though, and tell you how I even got the idea to make the Death Star Pinata.

H (the youngest, my baby boy, apple of my eye) was turning 5. Now, turning 5 years old is a big deal in my family. You get to start Kindergarten. You are leaving “toddler-hood” and entering “little boy-hood”.  We had a party for E, which involved a bounce house in the backyard and 12 of his closest friends, so we were darn sure going to have a party for H.

So I when we asked my baby boy what kind of party he wanted he replied, “Star Wars.”  We weren’t surprised. Mark and I, as geek parents, were hoping one of our children would want a Star Wars party so I threw myself into the planning.  And threw myself into Google.  And then Pinterest.  There are some freakin’ creative people out there and I am so very  grateful to them.  They had lists of wonderful fun names for food and ingenious party games to put together. And then E, the oldest boy, joined the planning of the games and came up with a couple really great ones.  But I will leave the game talk for the next post. This one is about a Death Star Pinata.

So, anyway, I figured what could be better to end a Star Wars Jedi Academy Training party than smashing the Death Star! I just had to find one.

They are expensive!  Etsy, Ebay, and various other sites had them for sale, but they were obviously handmade and they were a lot of money. And me being the DIY person I am thought, “Pffft. I can do that. How hard can it be.”

HA!

So another Google search brought me here – http://starwars.com/play/online-activities/cooking/deathstarpinata/

Starwars.com is a great website with lots of great ideas and activities to do with kids. I was inspired and impressed by what I could do for this party.  If you have clicked on the link above you will see this activity is given 4 stars in difficulty. Believe it. It will take awhile and it will be tedious at times, but you can do it if you have enough patience.

Here is what I learned….

– The newspaper will tear like you think wet tissue paper will tear; however, the wet tissue paper is surprisingly strong.

– Use a darker grey of a glitter so the non-glittered lines stand out more.

– You will get the flour paste all over.  All over you.  All over the pinata. All over the floor. All over the cabinets.  All over the bathroom sink.  All over.

– You will blow the balloon up bigger than you should and so you will need more newspaper than you thought.

– You will do this on a day that will get insanely hot and humid. It will take the wet newspaper forever to dry. And when it does the balloon will expand and crack the newspaper crust. And you will cry. (But don’t worry – the next layer will hold it together.)

– You need to do the newspaper layers in one day and let the air out of the balloon in that same day. (See above.)

– When you let the air out of the balloon you need to do it slowly. Be patient. Don’t try to just pop it. Why? Because if you do it could implode the pinata and that whole, long, messy day of work is for nothing.

It was easy to start! though. I just needed a punch balloon, newspaper, and a cup of flour mixed with a cup of water.

 

 

 

After the first layer of newsprint was applied it looked like some kind of weird classified ad globe. It was stick and wet and balancing on a cereal bowl so it wouldn’t tumble away. I don’t know what the broom and dustpan are there for. Perhaps I thought they would remind me to work clean?

 

After the second layer of newsprint dried I deflated the balloon. I did it a little too soon. The papier-mache was still kind of damp. Consequently, I was able to form the gun port dish with just an ill-placed elbow when I was trying to get the nail to pierce the pinata so I could thread the string into it.  It was actually pretty nice. I didn’t have to cut through it with an X-acto knife and try to retape it together.  Here it is half way covered with the silver tissue paper.  This is just after H came into the bathroom, saw me covered with flour paste, and told me  he liked it better when the newsprint was showing.

A dramatic shot of the Death Star Pinata in the half-dark.  Kind of glittery and foreboding. And loaded with candy. Yummy, yummy candy.

After we put the kids through all their Jedi Training games we brought it out and hung it up. The children were SO FREAKIN’ EXCITED.  They started chanting “Henrik Rocks!” over and over. H now declares the Death Star was his favorite part of the party.  And now that it has been destroyed and the children have eaten the candy I must renege on my earlier statement that I would never do this again. I would totally do it again. It was completely worth it.