One thing I didn’t really think about regarding preschool is just how chock full of birthday parties it would be. Without question the funniest memory from all of the ones we have attended involves a pinata. I’ll only share it because I know that the parents of the birthday child have an excellent sense of humor!
It was the very first party Kayla had been to where there was a pinata and it was the most gigantic one I had ever seen and a Disney Princess – Ariel. It was AWESOME. I kid you not, it must have been 4 feet tall and every parent and child was thoroughly impressed. But then it came time to actually break open the pinata and let me tell you it was the most ridiculous 15 minutes of insanity I have ever seen on the birthday party circuit.
Watching the kids take turns absolutely beating this poor paper mache princess to a pulp had all of us parents alternating between fits of giggles and “oh-my-gosh, this is sooooo wrong.”
Inevitably one of the parents had to step in with an aluminum bat to crack open Ariel’s head and let the candy goodness flow. By now you get what I’m thinking…yes, there must be a better (albeit less funny) more efficient and less violent way to make it rain candy and trinkets on a bunch of preschoolers.
Of course shortly after this experience (and still months from her own birthday) Kayla insisted she wanted a pinata at her birthday party. Seriously, I brought up Disneyland as a celebration option and she was less than enthused. She simply restated that she wanted a pinata with candy and toys.
So I was happy to indulge her in what she now refers to as the “not a hit pinata” you see here. Instead it’s a pull string pinata which are harder to find in the big box stores. If you’ve never seen one in person, the kids just take turns pulling strings and eventually it opens up.
When I saw this very girly hippo on Birthday Express I knew Kayla would fall in love with it instantly. Initially I planned to stuff it myself, but then had a moment of clarity and saved it for a weird Sunday afternoon that kept alternating between sun and rain.
No joke, Kayla spent half an hour happily dropping all of the little treats into that hippo one by one. She is so incredibly in love with it that thank goodness it’s a pull string one because I can’t imagine her watching this beloved hippo getting pulverized by her friends.
So if you have a birthday coming up and plan to do a pinata with little kids, consider the humane alternative 🙂
