DIY Pony Pinata

One day while browsing the party aisles of Wal-Mart, my 4 year old noticed some pinatas on a bottom shelf and asked if we could buy one on the spot. My immediate response in order to change the subject and to get her to stop asking was, "Not right now, sweetie, but how about for your 5th birthday?" 
While my answer quickly had her stop asking about the pinatas, she never forgot what I said and of course, more than a month later when it was time to prepare for her birthday party, you know what she made sure to ask for?.....a pinata!

As an aside, I am quickly learning that as my children grow, they do and will remember more of what I say so I'm trying to be careful about what I say and how I say it. That's a hard pill to swallow ya'll!!

Anyways, in preparation for her birthday, which is coming up in a few days, we found ourselves back at Wal-Mart browsing the party section and low and behold there were pinatas...and this time there was more of selection to choose from. Wouldn't you know it! 
Because of this, my daughter couldn't make up her mind on which one she wanted to get and then an idea dawned on me..."why pay $20 for something we could try to make together at home for next to nothing??" After all, it's just a cardboard box and some tissue paper, right?

It didn't take much convincing to tell my daughter about this plan and she was quickly on board. So when we got home, we looked up some ideas and settled on a pony pinata. This was the site we found that we ended up using as our guide. There are some great step-by-step plans listed here if you are interested in ever trying your hands at making one.

I'm not going to go into every single detail on how to make one, but here's a quick run-down of what we did....

Made an outline and cut it out...

(Side note: I messed up on the legs at first because I made them too small so I had to add more cardboard to make them a bit wider- but that's what's great about using this stuff, it's easy to fix if you make a mistake) 

loosened up the cardboard strips by curling them to make it easier to add to the side of the pony,

taped the sides and the outlines together, 

and then added the fringed tissue paper to the pony- starting from the bottom and working our way up. 

The cardboard I used is actually a bit more sturdy than expected...but it was free and even if the kiddos can't break her open right away, we will make sure candy gets dispersed somehow!!!

Even though the pinata isn't finished yet, as you can clearly see by the photo above, this is where we are stopping until the day before the party so we can add the candy, add more yellow fringe, and eyes (per request of my daughter).

I'm pleased at how well it turned out...it doesn't look as great as the one pictured here but it was actually fun making it and now that I know a bit more of what I'm doing, I would definitely do this again...because now my 3 year old is already requesting one for her next birthday party. ;) 
If you give a mouse a cookie, right?!