Pumpkin Season

Nothing much new to report in the garden, other than that I really need to get out there and make some hard decisions about yanking plants. I am too tender-hearted for this part of gardening! I don't think it will be today; I am pumpkin-hung-over from a pumpkin-treat-themed playgroup yesterday. I got myself in the mood with pumpkin ravioli for lunch, then friends brought over steamed pumpkin bites with garlic yogurt, pumpkin pie made with an actual gourd, a variety of pumpkin muffins, pumpkin crackers, pumpkin cream cheese... and to top it off I cracked open a bottle of pumpkin hard cider (for moms only, needless to say, in dixie-cup-sized servings!). I felt distinctly queasy last night, then forgetfully chose pumpkin bread for morning snack today. D'oh!

DIY Angry Birds Birthday Party

The finished pinata, looking awesome

 The older child is turning 5, and since he is obsessed with Angry Birds, it was the obvious choice for the party theme. Less obvious was the amount of work we were letting ourselves in for by going DIY for much of it, including pinata, knock-down game, and cupcakes. As my husband pointed out, were I not also somewhat of a fan of the game, we might not have gotten *quite* so into the theme.

Thanks to Shery K Designs who, according to the Internet, has made a pack of Angry Birds printables readily available to the rest of us. We used most of the templates.

Pinata in process

But, still - all in all, a lot of work. After resizing, laying out, and printing, it still took me about 2 hours to make 24 cupcake toppers (with some spousal support toward the end). I did construction paper circles with a bird or pig on either side. The DIY pinata (just google that phrase for many ideas and instructions) was ably handled by the birthday boy's father, with some "help" from the child. (Recurrent theme in our family.) It took a few hours. I don't begrudge the time making and decorating the actual cupcakes since that's my strong preference for getting something tasty out of a party ... but that was a couple hours too, now that you mention it.  Dyeing shredded coconut yellow for the yellow Bird cupcakes turned out particularly nicely.

Cupcakes with toppers, arranged in a tableau with knock-down game's cans

Target supplied the napkins and table covers, and "loot bags" (how I hate that concept, but it was handy for the pinata filling).  Now a distant memory, the invitations themselves were a fair bit of work too. I freehanded a yellow Bird and a piggie on construction paper, then cut out a text circle and glued it to each one. My child helped with that too.  We had to go hard copy invites since I wanted to invite his whole class and, it being so early in the school year, we didn't have an email list yet. No doubt this will also be a recurrent theme for his birthday each year.

Prep time aside, everything turned out great and the kid loved it. That's what's important. We didn't spend a lot, and we even got a few cute family photos out of it. Viva los Angry Birds!