Making a dragon pinata

What is a knight without a dragon to vanquish? Just a dude with a sword... So I had a hunt online for a dragon pinata and found one for sale that was a) empty b) £12 and c) out of stock anyway. But thanks to this lovely tutorial, I saved my £12 for buying chocolate coins to fill the dragon, and set about making my own.

I made the papier mache glue by cooking 3/4 cup of flour with 3 cups of water and a handful of salt (supposedly this inhibits mould. It didn't get a proper test so I can't verify that.) I used a paper towel tube for the head and some rolled up paper for the tail and lots and lots of masking tape to attach the head and tail to the balloon. Then I applied the strips of newspaper to the balloon using lots of the paste. The first layer took nearly two days to dry despite the weather being very hot. The second layer dried much quicker. Or so I thought! I only did two layers of papier mache because I wanted the children to have a fighting chance of getting to the sweets.

The jury was out whether it looked more like a swan or a dinosaur (votes were cast for both a diplodocus and a brontosaurus, which split the dino vote).

The children and I filled him with several hundred chocolate coins, and then painted him. The jury conceded that he was looking a bit more like a dragon, particularly when his lovely rotund torso collapsed in on itself. I panicked and used the hairdryer to speed up the drying process before it dawned on me that hot air and chocolate coins were probably not a great match. So I let nature take its course...

I cut up cardboard for the dragony paraphrenalia and stuck it on with double-sided sticky pads. It is now indisputably a dragon!

I'd love to post pics of the dragon hanging from the swing ready to be whacked (he looked pretty impressive, I can tell you!) and of the children lining up in age order to whack him. And action shots of the two year olds viciously wielding the stick just to tickle his tummy would have been very sweet. Unfortunately I was too busy shrieking with laughter to operate the camera, especially when the mummies started beating him about the head. A lot of pent up emotions were released that evening and it was everyone's favourite part of the party. Even the little girl who came dressed up as a dragon cancelled her subscription to Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Dragons that day and beat him up with the best of them! Pinatas rock!

Birthdays!!!!!

It's been a very busy month. We've had four birthdays, two parties (still trying to work out how that happened), 8 cakes and a lot of sewing. It's a relief to be able to sit down and go through the photos. And here are the highlights..



James' birthday outfit donned for the school fete. The children are bickering over who should drive the fire engine.

James won the argument but let Laura have a go a bit later. You can just catch a glimpse of Laura in Patty Young! I couldn't resist making up just one dress...

A closer view of the dress, still at the fete.

Ottobre's London polo shirt, complete with an appliqued 5. Just in case any of use could forget that James is now 5.

The first party: James' circus party, shared with his best friend. We had Conk the Clown entertain the children and I can't recommend him highly enough. Laura wore her Chasing Fireflies dress, complete with de-wonked hem and insipid pink ribbon. James eschewed the carefully made birthday outfit in favour of last year's stripey shorts and supermarket t-shirt. Pick your battles, folks, pick your battles.

Laura's princess outfit. It started out life as a blouse and pettiskirt but Laura wears her skirts so low, the bottom of the blouse came nowhere near the top of the skirt. So I added a skirt to the blouse and it looks a good deal less like a weather girl's idea of what Cinderella migh wear.

A better view of the Chasing Fireflies dress. I also made the back loops shorter so that it doesn't gape.

We had a Princess & Knights party for Laura. The children could build a sugar-cube castle,

climb around a cardboard castle,

have tea in Ye Olde Tea Tente,

and generally have an absolutely brilliant time. I also made a dragon pinata, which was hugely popular. I'll post pictures in the next post.

The t-shirt's so bright you gotta wear shades

I finally got round to using the Tyrrell Katz Working Vehicles fabric in a t-shirt for James. It was made to his specification: yellow, a hood, and diggers. I used the #14 reversible raglan sleeve t-shirt pattern from Ottobre 04/09 in size 110. He's at that irritating stage of being in between sizes so the 110 looks enormous on it, which doesn't add to its beauty. I only did one layer for the t-shirt, apart from the hood, which is double-layered so that the reverse of the digger print fabric isn't on show. Otherwise, it's fairly quick and dirty - I wanted him to have something new for a party this morning so I only spent a couple of hours on it.

It isn't my best work (I will have to fix that wonky pocket or it will forever bug me) but James said it was 'fabberooni' and insisted on wearing it immediately. So I'm happy that he's happy, even if yellow is so not a good colour on him!

Incidentally, if you're in the West Midlands with a train-happy child and want to give a party with a difference, then I thoroughly recommend the model trains at Illshaw Heath. They are pull tiny carriages that the children and adults can perch on for a ride. It was one of the best two hours I have ever spent and the children had to be prised away at the end of the party. So hurray for the Birmingham Society of Model Engineers who operate and maintain all the trains and who made the party so special for the children.