Month: November 2023

A DIY Birthday Pinata for LJ

Last night, we celebrated LJ’s sixth birthday! This was the first year we did a big party with friends and he invited six buddies to come celebrate with him. There were many fun parts of the evening, but one of the highlights was this last-minute pinata!

I don’t typically lean hard into a themed birthday party and prefer to get decorations and supplies I can reuse over and over again in future years, but I do usually have a themed dessert based on the child’s interests. This year, LJ surprised my by requesting a monster truck ice cream cake. Even he admitted he’s not typically interested in monster trucks, but that’s what he wanted on his cake so we rolled with it. Then the night before the party, I was picking up a few last minute supplies and I stumbled across this.

I immediately thought how fun a pinata would be at the party, and that it’d be fun to surprise LJ with a monster truck one. I did not love the $20 price tag of this one though, so I got a burst of inspiration to try making my own DIY version of a pinata. It turned out great so I thought I’d share the tutorial today – I had most of the supplies on hand so it ended up costing me just over $5 and took about an hour of active work time.

Supplies

-thick cardboard (I used a diaper box)

-thin cardboard (I used a cereal box)

-painter’s tape (masking tape would work too)

-tissue paper

-scissors

-pen

-glue stick

-candy to fill it!

I decided to keep the shape simple so I used a round fruit bowl to trace two circles onto the diaper box cardboard. The edges weren’t perfectly smooth after cutting but I knew tape would be going over top so I didn’t worry about it.

I cut the two narrow sides off the Cheerios box, and when I realized that wouldn’t quite be enough to go all around the large circles I used one as a template to cut one more strip off the box.

I used painter’s tape to attach the Cheerios strip to one large round circle, then the other. I left one little flap un-taped so there would be a slot to add candy.

Once the structure was finished, it was time for the tissue paper. I stacked a few sheets of tissue paper and cut them into roughly two inch strips.

I stacked the strips and then cut the fringe about halfway into the strip. I didn’t worry about perfection – the strips and fringe were all a little different!

I swiped a glue stick in a line across the bottom and stuck the first piece of tissue paper on. Right above the top of the tissue paper, I swiped another line of glue and stuck another piece on. I repeated this process from the bottom to the top and then cut the excess tissue paper around the edge of the pinata.

I flipped the pinata over and repeated the process on the other large round side, then did the same thing on the narrow side. There was a little adjusting here and there as I glued the edges and trimmed off excess. I did put tissue paper over the candy flap, but did not close it yet.

Just one quick note: The fringe was irregular, but since the tissue paper was all one color it didn’t matter to me. If I was doing a multicolored pinata I would probably have wanted to keep things a little more consistent so the stripes would look more cohesive.

For hanging the pinata, I took a piece of black pipe cleaner and poked two small holes in the top. It was too hard to document this, but I stuck my hand through the candy slot to twist the ends together inside, then I used painter’s tape to stick the twisted ends to the top of the pinata. This felt sturdy enough to withstand a beating from six year old boys!

Lastly, I filled it with candy, and carefully stuck painter’s tape inside the candy slot, adhesive side sticking to the sides and covering the hole as best I could, so that I could press down the flap onto the tape. (In hindsight, I should have taped the flap from the outside and then covered it up again with fringe to give better durability).

I bought a monster truck digital download on Etsy and had it printed at my local FedEx on cardstock. I cut a circle around the truck, glued it to the front, and voila! A monster truck pinata for a total of $5.18.

We used rope to hang it from a broomstick, which Justin held. It was a hit with the boys and lasted about 12 solid hits before bursting open, which was good enough for me (but it burst from the candy flap side and I think if I had taped that closed just a little bit better it would’ve lasted a little longer). LJ loved it and told me I was “the best maker birthday mom ever” which I will take! 😉

September & October 2023 Book Reviews

This fall has been a big time of transition for my family. LJ started kindergarten and now my days include balancing drop-offs and pick-up for both kindergarten and preschool. Add in a toddler’s (can’t believe it’s not “baby’s” anymore!) nap schedule and a few extracurriculars to the mix, plus just daily life things like meals and laundry and cleaning, and you can probably see why I chose to pare back on other things while I got my bearings in this new stage. I’ve also been prioritizing rest (my goal for November!) and it’s been a refreshing change of pace. Home projects and this blog are creative outlets for me, but it was a good decision to hold them loosely over the past few months so I could actually enjoy this stage of transition for my family. It feels like we’re in a good groove now and I’m ready to be more consistent here again – and what better way than to jump back in than to catch up on my book reviews?

I haven’t had the brain space for too many books these past few months but I did read three books over the course of September and October. Let’s discuss!

The Celebrants by Steven Rowley

In college, it was the six of them: inseparable best friends. Then tragedy struck. Now it’s the five of them and while they don’t see each other as often, they know they can always count on one another to show up when life gets hard. And when life gets super hard, they show up and throw a funeral. This funeral is for the living friend, giving tribute to them and reminding them that they are loved and supported and celebrated. These funerals have happened over the course of decades, and in an intricately-told story weaving past and present together we see both how the past funerals unfolded and how the characters are preparing for and processing the next one, which may be the hardest living funeral yet.

This was a new author to me and I was so impressed with his storytelling. I devoured this book in 24 hours. I simply could not put it down! It was an incredibly intimate portrait of a decades-long friendship that has gone through varying stages of closeness. Poignant, thought-provoking, deep. I loved how the present day struggles of two of the characters were woven in with the history of the past funerals for the others. I highlighted two passages that really struck me: “We weren’t meant to see everything, we weren’t built to do everything, we aren’t capable of knowing everything. At a certain point, peace has to be found with the choices we’ve made.” ” Not everything had to be Paris to be a life experience. It was just that some things needed to be new, and carry with them the air of excitement that comes with the uncharted.” I love when a book causes me to pause and reflect on my own life, and those moments, as well as others throughout, did just that. Ultimately, I thought it was a meaningful look at what it looks like to show up for one another in life’s toughest moments and what it means to live a life well lived. I absolutely loved it and will be thinking about it for quite a while.

The Montessori Toddler: A Parent’s Guide to Raising a Curious and Responsible Human Being by Simone Davies

“Turn your home into a Montessori home–and become a more mindful, attentive, and easygoing parent. It’s time to change the way we see toddlers. Using the principles developed by the educator Dr. Maria Montessori, Simone Davies shows how to turn life with a “terrible two” into a mutually rich and rewarding time of curiosity, learning, respect, and discovery.”

I happened to see this book on the shelf at my local library and decided to check it out. I was vaguely familiar with some of the principles of Montessori and was curious about ways I could implement some of it into our home and daily practices. This book is FULL of practical ideas ranging from how to set up your home to lists of activities for your toddler at different stages of development to advice on cultivating routines for everything from getting dressed to brushing teeth to cleaning up spills and helping in the kitchen. It’s not a book I devoured, but I did enjoy picking it up here and there and reading a bit at a time, writing down little bits of wisdom and advice along the way. It’s definitely aspirational and I’m far from fully implementing this lifestyle for my family, but I am on board with many of the Montessori ideals and found this book to be really helpful. I was inspired to make tweaks to our routines with all my kids, even the ones outside of toddlerhood, and I have appreciated those changes in our life! It was inspiring for me and if you’re interested in Montessori at all, I think it’s worth checking out, even if you just want to browse through for some ideas.

The It Girl by Ruth Ware

April Clarke-Cliveden was the first person Hannah Jones met at Oxford. Vivacious, bright, occasionally vicious, and the ultimate It girl, she quickly pulled Hannah into her dazzling orbit and they developed a group of devoted and inseparable friends during their first term. By the end of the year, April was dead. Now, a decade later, the man convicted of killing April, whom Hannah testified against, has died in prison. Relieved to have finally put the past behind her, Hannah’s world is rocked when a young journalist comes knocking and presents new evidence that Neville may have been innocent. As Hannah reconnects with old friends and delves deeper into the mystery of April’s death, she realizes that the friends she thought she knew all have something to hide…including a murder. (summary adapted from Amazon)

The cover gives very psychological thriller vibes, and it does eventually have a few heart-pumping scenes, but this book felt more like a mystery and less like a thriller to me. I will say, I kept having a deja vu sense – it was my first time reading it but it felt like a book I’ve read before. Even though it’s not psychological, it reminded me of Girl on a Train or The Woman in the Window – Hannah isn’t necessarily an unreliable narrator, but there are elements of questioning her memories that makes it feel similar to other books I’ve read. I liked the dual timelines and enjoyed picturing the Oxford setting (in my mind, it looked kind of like Harry Potter ha!) but the characters were all a bit unlikeable for various reasons so it was hard to know who to root for and who to suspect. The mystery was intriguing and I was invested in figuring out what exactly happened to April, so it held my interest even when it got a little slow at times. It kept me guessing for a long time, and while I did suspect some aspects of the twisty reveals, there were also parts that I was completely surprised by. Overall, it doesn’t land as a top recommendation for me but it was a solid mystery and if you’re in the mood for a suspenseful read without gore or jumpiness, this would be a good choice.

We’re approaching my favorite time of year to read – cozied up with a blanket by a twinkling Christmas tree! – and I’m excited to dive into the huge stack of books I just checked out from the library. If you have any must-read recommendations to add, send them my way!