a balloon pinata - the how to

We needed lots of candy in our balloons for our balloon pinata. Our first attempts, just opening the neck of a standard latex balloon and shoving in as much candy as we could, averaged about 3 to 4 pieces before we poked a hole somewhere. My husband then decided it was time for a new plan and a trip to Home Depot.

The basic concept is to create a vacuum so you can expand the balloon, insert your candy, and then slowly deflate the balloon. This was the method my husband came up with, but you could make a vacuum any number of ways. You'll need a wet/dry vacuum, and a few other items: a 4" PVC pipe elbow, a 4" rubber end cap, a piece of PVC coupling that's big enough for your candy to pass through, a 4" to 2" reducer, and a little valve to help control the airflow. (All this will run you about $20, assuming you have a vacuum.)

You can see everything in the photo above. Starting from the left side: the valve (attached to the wet/dry vac), some PVC pipe, a 4" to 2" reducer (the black funnel-like piece), and a 4" elbow piece of PVC pipe.

You need to cut a hole in the rubber end cap (the black piece on the bottom right) to fit your 2" PVC coupling. This is what you will feed your candy through.

Once you're all assembled, stretch the neck of the balloon over the 2" pipe coupling. Then slide the rubber end cap onto the elbow piece, with the balloon inside the elbow.

Now the tricky part: You need to open up the valve just enough to create a vacuum and expand your balloon. It's all about pressure, you need a decent amount of pressure to expand the balloon, but if you use too much, it will pop. 

It's probably not a perfect seal, so you need to maintain the vacuum with a certain amount of pressure to keep the balloon blown up. JR found it helped to manually tweak the pressure by holding the joint between the valve and the wet/dry vac hose (see photo below).

Once your balloon is expanded, grab your candy and drop it piece by piece through the 2" piece of coupling (we made ours big enough to fit our biggest piece of candy, a box of Nerds). We found 13-15 pieces of candy worked well, when we tried to do more we usually popped our balloon. Then slowly tweak the pressure so the balloon deflates around the candy.

When you open up the rubber end cap, you'll see all the candy with the balloon deflated around it. We then used a small hand pump to blow up the balloons to the desired size. 

We blew our balloons up the night before the party and kept them in a large trash bag. Once we were at the park ready for the party, we staple gunned the balloons to a big wooden board (we covered ours with a plastic tablecloth to avoid splinters).

One at a time, each guest at the party stood about 5 feet in front of the board and threw a dart at the balloons, trying to pop one. The balloon would pop, and the candy would explode, and the child got to run and grab all the candy from their balloon. The kids loved it, and even the littlest guys who were 4 and 5 years old could pop a balloon pretty easily. 

Thanks for figuring this one out JR. I love the crazy way your mind works.

a balloon party

C's 6th birthday was a celebration of all things balloon related: helium filled balloons, giant balloons, rocket balloons, punch balloons, water balloons, etc. We held the party at a nearby park and invited a dozen of C's school friends and cousins. C and I drew up a plan for his birthday with ideas for games, favors, the cake, etc.

The part we were most excited about was the Balloon Obstacle Course, which was based on an obstacle course we did back at Martha Stewart Kids. We held the party at a local park since the obstacle course needed a decent amount of space. (Lesson #1: Parties not held at home require a lot more work! Don't underestimate the time involved in just hauling things from one place to another!)

The obstacle course started by crawling underneath two tables (we also used them to hold the gifts). Then the kids ran over a balance beam we made from some 2x4s. Next was the wagon pull, where they pulled the wagon around some balloons. Then they held a balloon between their legs and hopped to the next station where it ended with a bucket of water balloons. You had to grab a balloon from the bucket and toss it into another bucket a few feet away.

(Lesson #2: Sometimes things aren't quite as fun as you think they will be!) The kids were excited about the obstacle course, and they cheered the first 3 or 4 people on with lots of enthusiasm. One child could run the course in about two minutes, but when you have twelve children at a party (plus more siblings who wanted to try the course as well) the kids who had already gone seemed a little bored of it by the time we were done. I think next time I would figure out some way to involve the kids more in the course itself so they aren't just sitting watching.. make one child your timer, another in charge of yelling GO!, have one hand out the water balloons, etc.

We kept the food simple: PB+J for the kids, turkey and basil sandwiches for the adults, watermelon, grapes, pretzels, veggies + dip, and lots of juice boxes. For the cake, I blew up little balloons (like the kind you use for water balloons) and tied them to skewers. It made for a festive centerpiece and the balloons were easy to do the day before. (Lesson #3: Cake is a lot more work than cupcakes. It requires a knife, and plates, and forks, etc. I vote cupcakes next time.)

Favor bags were stenciled with a red 6 and held a few dot candies and a punch balloon. The kids used their bags to catch the candy from the "balloon pinata".

The balloon pinata was my favorite part of the party. I love pinatas, and my children always insist on having one at their parties... but the pinatas never seem to work the way I want them to. The kids usually can't get the thing busted open and one of the adults has to step in and finish the job. The pinata just kind of falls to the ground and we have to pick it up and shake the candy out. And then of course, the pushing and shoving as the kids try to grab as much candy as they can.

Here's what we did instead: you know that carnival game where you throw darts at balloons? We filled balloons with candy and hung one balloon for each child on a wooden board (we covered ours with a plastic tablecloth so a splinter wouldn't accidentally pop the balloons). Each kid had a chance to throw a dart (or two or three) at the balloons until one popped and then they got to run up and grab all the candy from their balloon. The kids loved it and we avoided that moment where one child is crying because he didn't get enough candy (which always seems to happen when we have a pinata).

Note: There's a trick to filling up the balloons with candy. If you try to just shove a few pieces into a balloon before you fill it, you'll be able to fit about 3 pieces before you poke a hole somewhere. We wanted a big explosion of candy, and 3 pieces wasn't going to cut it. My husband, who is an engineer at heart, figured out a great way to fill the balloons up with about 15 pieces of candy. And yes, it involved a trip to Home Depot and a Wet Vac. Details to come.

a balloon party - the invites

C turned 6! We had a lot of fun planning this balloon themed party, I love that he is old enough now to really get involved in the planning process. Rather than throwing invites in the mail, I love delivering the invitations in person a few weeks before the party. All the kids we were inviting live close by, and my kids have a lot of fun running around to all their friend's houses. (It also helps me limit how many kids to invite!)

We rolled the invitations into a little tube and then slipped them into a helium filled balloon, along with a few pieces of confetti. It might not surprise you that I worked at a party store when I was a teenager and I can remember filling balloons with confetti or rolled up dollar bills. The trick is to roll up the invitation as small as possible, secure it with a little tape, and then stuff the invite and the confetti into the balloon before it gets filled with helium. Then attach a little sign that reads "Pop me!" to the balloon string.

We used clear balloons so you could see the invite and confetti clearly. C's friends were so happy to see him on their doorstep, balloon in hand. And really, what's more fun than getting to pop a balloon!

More scenes from C's party tomorrow!

a baby shower brunch

Funny story. My sweet friends planned a baby shower for me, a brunch on a Saturday morning. But then I surprised us all by going into labor that Thursday evening, over a month before my due date. When they came to see me at the hospital they insisted we cancel the shower. "No way!" I said, knowing how much work they had already gone to. "The shower is on, I will be there!"

I was due to be released from the hospital Saturday morning at 11 AM. The shower was at 10. "I'm going to need to get discharged early on Saturday," I said to the nurse. "I have a baby shower I need to get to." The nurse looked up at me, "Well you might need to be late for the shower." I replied, "No, see... the shower is for me!" And then all the nurses laughed, and yes, I made it to the shower on time.

It was a lovely morning, in a beautiful setting, with so many of my friends and family. And the food was delicious. So good in fact that I had to contact each person who made something and get the recipe for myself. And of course, I'll share with you (just download this PDF).

The color palette was citrus shades of orange, yellow and a bit of red and green. The sweet invitations were done by my friends over at Blonde Designs (I've edited some information for privacy).

And for favors, my friends made little jars of homemade strawberry jam, which is what JR and I gave out as favors at our wedding. I couldn't believe they had gone to all that work, and the jars looked so pretty sitting out on the table.

I admit I have changed my tune about baby showers. I used to be a strict enforcer of the one-shower-per-person rule. One really great shower for your first baby, and that's it. Friends tried to throw a shower when I had Bee, and I refused, I really hate to be the center of attention. But after struggling for some time to have a baby this go round, I am all about celebrating babies, whether it's your first or your fourth!

39 reasons why I love you

I love my husband. And he knows that. But on his birthday, I like to make sure he knows it in more ways than one. So this year I sat down and wrote out 39 things I love about JR, since he turned 39 this year. (I take it as a good sign that 39 things came fairly easily.. maybe it will get more difficult when he is turning 87?)

Here's how to make your own...  Grab some strips of paper, some colored tape, and some string. Then write 39 things you love about the birthday boy: traits you admire, things you know will make him laugh, add some serious things as well. Lay out some string and tape your strips in order, from number 1 to 39 (mine were about 18 inches apart).

Hang your string up using a little more tape. I put mine up all around our living and dining room, since it's the first room my husband enters when he comes home. They make a festive little garland, and later that night JR walked slowly around the room reading all of the messages.

When I took the garland down a few days later I saved all of the little strips, tucked them into an envelope and stashed it in my husband's desk so he can reread the things I love about him anytime he likes.

And because so many of you asked.. I got my tape as a Christmas gift from here.

this week's library book

Summertime means lots of things at our house: lazy mornings, corn on the cob, afternoons at the pool, ice cream cones, Saturdays spent at the beach with the cousins, the county fair, going to bed a bit later than usual.. and, of course, trips to the library.

I was first introduced to Don and Audrey Wood when C received The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear as a birthday present several years ago. So when I saw The Napping House at the library, I added it to our pile without even opening it up. I do this a lot at the library, find an author I like and then search through the stacks to see how many other books they've written. I figure if I love one book, the other books can't be half bad.

The Napping House tells the story of "a napping house, where everyone is sleeping". First the snoring granny, then a dreaming child, and on and on with a dozing dog, a snoozing cat, a slumbering mouse... and finally a wakeful flea, all in a pile on grandmother's bed.

When the flea decides to bite the mouse, which scratches the cat, which claws the dog.. and so on and so on, needless to say the nap is soon over.

I read in an interview with Audrey Wood that this book was based on the napping habits of their son Bruce, who refused to nap at home, but would nap at his granny's house where everything was quiet. "We learned by trial and error that the only way we could get him to sleep was to walk him the two blocks to his granny’s house. Everything there was restful and calm, and granny (my mother) always loved to take an afternoon nap. She owned a fluffy dog, and when granny, the dog, and Bruce settled into her cozy bed, everyone was dreaming in minutes. This became a daily ritual, and we began to refer to my mother’s home as "the napping house." That’s how the book was born."