Homemade Ladybug Piñata

Upon hearing there would be a group of girls Mila's age 

at a Memorial Day BBQ we'd been invited to, 

Mila and Mommy decided to make a homemade piñata. 

 We kept it simple by using a regular balloon for shape. 

Using a paper mache mixture of 1 part flour to 2 parts water,

Mommy covered the balloon with 3 layers of newsprint strips

(letting the layers fully dry in-between).

 Mila liked gluing on the tissue paper and lady bug spots 

much more than doing the paper mache,

which she "helped" with for about 5 minutes.  

As she said, "that's for Mommy's to do, not little kids."

 We popped the ballon and left the top open in order to fill it 

with goodies. Mommy secured the sides with duct tape 

before poking holes for the string.

Then we used tissue paper/construction paper to cover the hole. 

 "Are we ever gonna smack this thing open?"

 It was pretty durable, but after a good beating by all the girls

 and a few parents, the ladybug split open.

 The mad scramble.

 Mila made sure there was nothing left :)

 Our hosts set up their awesome bouncy house 

for the girls after the piñata.

Mila had a really great time and so did we.

At night we asked her what her favorite part of the day was 

and she answered, "All of it!"