Flash Back Friday(ish): Pinatas

One of our first big "have a lot of people over" birthday parties took place when Aaron turned 5.
We had recently moved to Arizona so of course the party included a pinata.

Amy needed a little help but Aaron got right into it

Pinata's are a fairly simple idea. You fill a hollow, brightly colored paper mache figure with candy, give a child a baseball bat or some other instrument that enables them to cause blunt force trauma, blind fold them and allow them to hack away... realizing that as they break the pinata apart candy will fall causing the non blind folded children do jump directly in front of the one swinging the bad who has no idea that the the body they are now making contact with is not made of paper... hmmm I see Brian Regan material here. Who made up this thing anyway?
Please notice we did not blindfold the one with the bat.

As it turns out pinatas are not really made of paper and paste that falls apart easily when a 5 year old hits it. It is reinforced with superglue (or carbon fiber) and requires the strength of a grown man to actually get the candy out by hitting it. I guess that's OK with them, just don't blind fold them!

Even though year after year party goers at our house took their life into their own hands, we continued the tradition of pinatas at parties. However, the year Jen turned 5, she could not bear the thought of anyone hitting her beloved unicorn pinata with anything... so all the kids took turns reaching their hands inside and pulling out a handful of candy till it was gone.

It was just as well... it was raining that year.

Two years later however it was sunny and bright - but a funny thing happened. As the pinata broke spewing candy all over the driveway no one when for it. It just sat there.
Turns out most of her friends' parents were paying them not to eat candy for a year.

That was our last pinata.... and that my friends is the rest of the story.