The first pinata I made for my children was Bob the Tomato for Z’s Veggie Tales birthday party.

I didn’t even have Pinterest back then so this was definitely inspired by my own fond childhood memories. I knew you could make a paper mache pinata using a balloon for the shape and I knew Bob was pretty much the shape of a balloon so I went for it. The results were wonderful.

It was a cute decoration but it was also one of the most successful pinata bursts I have ever seen! The pinata started to crack open while it was still spinning which resulted in the epic launch of candy flying in every direction! It was so fun I knew that wouldn’t be my last DIY pinata and it wasn’t.

I made another attempt two years later when Z turned 6. I went with Batman this time to go with his Super Hero theme party.

This pinata turned out great. There was no tissue paper on it.  Instead, it was painted black with cardboard for the mask shape.

The next pinata I made was a donut for SJ’s donut themed party. This was fun because it was my first irregular shaped balloon.

It was also the first time I made a coordinating stick to whack it with. Yes, I am a nerd.

A couple years later I did my first box pinata and made a Minecraft Creeper. That was a huge hit no pun intended. It was time-consuming to paste all the squares on, but totally worth it!

Then I made a bumble bee for Elle’s “Fun to Bee One” party. That one may have been my favorite ever in terms of originality and creativity.

Lastly, I have the most recent pinata for Elle’s candy land party. I knew I wanted to do a pinata for this party because I figured that a candy pinata would be a no-brainer. It’s round and covered in tissue paper. That seemed easy enough.

The girls were so adorable taking turns hitting it! They were all dressed up as princesses and then they took the plastic baseball bat and got three solid hits each.

Everyone got a turn before one of the older girls was able to break it apart. Sadly it dropped to the ground rather than scatter. It was probably for the best though because it was hanging near our balcony. As you can see I’m a bit of a pinata enthusiast. No one else cares if you can see tape or it’s lopsided or the candy doesn’t cascade through the air. When it really comes down to it, I don’t care either. I enjoy the art of pinata making because it means I get to stick my hands in goop and create something really fun and special for the kids using just a few simple materials.

You may notice that out of all 6 pinatas none of them were for Ezie. I thought I would change that this year but it wasn’t meant to be. We celebrated his birthday at a farm a couple hours away and so I made a cool cake instead.

The thing about cake creations and pinata creations is that you spend hours crafting them and then it takes minutes to destroy. There is something oddly satisfying about this process though. I guess because the whole intent is to bring joy and if that happens the whole thing was a success! It is such a treat to watch the kids break the pinata or eat the cake. Those hours of labor are worth the minutes of wonder and cheer. I am really hoping that next year will be the year I make a pinata for Ezie though. I’m not sure what it will be yet, but it’s something to look forward to.