Well last week was a teensy bit of a bummer! Patricia got sent home from school for pink eye! And then Julius got sent home for a mild fever. Both kids were out for several days. We let them watch way too much tv while they were home which I fear might be a bit of a reward because Julius claimed he was sick a day longer than we intended to keep him home. I want to believe my child if they say they are sick, but he didn’t have a fever or any symptoms so how am I to know if he is really sick? He stayed home all day chipper as ever asking us to play with him. Today we again got a call from his after school program that he was not feeling well. He had claimed both his ears hurt and his stomach hurt so we took him to urgent care. They didn’t find anything wrong with him.
Julius has been really into musical instruments lately. He asked for a harmonica and has been begging me to print him out harmonica tabs. I think I need to sign him up for a music class, but his schedule is already so busy. He wants to do all these activities, but there is only so much time in the day! And Patricia still just adores her big brother. She always wants to give him a hug and a kiss before bed (much to Julius’ chagrin). And she always wants to play with him. Today her “question of the day” was “how are you feeling today” and she answered “peaceful because my brother plays with me”. That’s her happy place.
We went to see “Bluey’s Big Play” this weekend which was adorable (as all things Bluey are) and one of the themes was being a big sibling. I hope it gave Julius some food for thought. I definitely remember having a similar conversation with my mom at Julius’s age about my sister copying me and my mom explaining that it was because she looked up to me. It was eye opening. Now I look up to her, so hopefully she doesn’t get too annoyed when I copy her ;). Patricia does of course do her own things too. For instance I caught her gluing giant googly eyes to this rock the other day.
Gosh so many things to talk about from Earth Day! I guess I’ll describe how I made the Earth piñata this week. In the past I’ve made piñatas entirely out of paper mache. Paper mache is so satisfying. It’s just recycled paper, flour and water. This time I didn’t even bother to simmer the flour and water. I just mixed a 2 parts flour to one part water. I briefly considered using sourdough discard but wasn’t sure if that was taboo. Ha! Usually I use a balloon but I didn’t want to throw away a balloon just for a piñata so I tried another tactic. This one was made of recycled pizza boxes and constructed with the paper mache as glue. This was the perfect amount of durability as everyone got in a couple of good whacks before it busted opened. (We went youngest to oldest, and we went thru the order twice.) I was horrified that someone was going to get whacked so I had everyone stand WAY back while the kids were swinging. Even so you can see my horrified face in the photos below.
Oh one last thing! I wanted to make the filling for the piñata sustainable so I went to a penny candy store with my stasher bags and bought bulk hard candies and bulk foil wrapped candy (foil is recyclable!) We put a tablespoon of each of the hard candies into little paper envelopes. I also bought these cool completely plastic free tattoos from a company called Nuukk. They work really well! I think the kids enjoyed the treats. 
Paper Mache Earth Pinata
What you’ll need:
- 2 Pizza boxes
- old newspaper or ads
- flour
- a canary cutter (this is the best thing ever, I’ll wax poetic about it in a later post)
- recycled crepe paper streamers in green and blue (I saved mine from the under the sea party. Yes for 6 months. I know, I’m crazy.)
- a glue stick
- Cut first pizza boxes into two circles
- Cut a 6″ wide strip from the other pizza boxes, then fold up the sides to form a 2″ wide strip with two 2″ wide strips on either end.
- Cut the 2″ wide strips into tabs 1″ wide, then bend at each tab. These will be used to form the curved portion of the earth connecting the two circles.
- Whisk together two parts flour to one part water to form a paste.
- Rip strips of newspaper into roughly 1″x5″ strips.
- Dip a strip of newspaper into paste and lightly remove some of the paste so the mixture only just coats the paper. Start layering this on top of one side of the piñata where the face of the earth connects to the curved portion.
- Keep layering until a segment is covered, then cover with dry newspaper. Let dry.
- Repeat with the rest of the side of the box until a 6″ length of the curve is left.
Flap left opened.
- Repeat steps 6 thru 8 with the other side of the box. Let dry.
- After it completely dries determine if you need another set of paper mache to keep things together. The 6″ strip you left opened will be where you fill the piñata.
- After the pinata is dry, start adding your strips of crepe paper. Fold strips of crepe paper and cut 1/4″ cuts halfway into the paper.
- Start layering at the bottom by applying a stripe of glue stick, and then applying the non-fringed portion of the crepe paper to the glue. Make row continue around sides and bottom of the piñata.
- Stack the next row about the first continuing up the piñata. Intersperse the green and blue in strategic spots to form the continents.
- Continue stacking until you fill out the entire pinata including the portion at the top. Tuck the top portion in after filling it with candy and glue in place.
Finished Piñata
Watch my face.
Pure shock.
PS – I realize this Earth representation is flat. The Earth is not flat. I just wanted to use all recycled materials to make this Earth Day piñata Earth friendly.
PPS – I have already been told my continents leave something to be desired. I tried really hard, but a. I was a bit loose with geography and b. it is really hard to make continents out of rectangular strips!
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