Fiesta!

On Saturday we had a fiesta in the children's area. Yes, I know that Cinco de Mayo was two weeks ago, but is there ever a wrong time for pinatas and Mexican food? Well, it turns out that the day of the city block party is not the best time to schedule a party of any kind at the library. Even though there was not a huge number of kids at the fiesta, the ones in attendance seemed to have a blast.

The children's area was decked out with papel picado, cut out fiesta pictures, books about Mexico and by Mexican authors, and tissue paper dahlias (Mexico's national flower). The fiesta ambiance was completed with an interloaned cd of Mexican music.

The kids snacked on sopapillas drizzled with chocolate syrup and sombrero cookies.

The sombrero cookies were not exactly a traditional Mexican treat, but they were so cute. I was going to bake sugar cookies for the brim, but then my husband suggested using vanilla wafers. I knew that I married him for a reason! It saved me so much time and the kids (and their parents) loved them.

Now no fiesta would be complete without a pinata, but last time we tried a pinata at the library it was a bit of fiasco. The library really has nowhere to hang a pinata so we resorted to two teenage boys holding the pinata on a poll. Luckily neither of the boys got whacked with a stick, but the pinata did get broken by the second kid in line. With twenty kids still waiting for a turn, it was a bit of a disappointment.

Luckily I found an adorable idea on pinterest for kids to decorate their own personal pinatas to take home. I filled up paper bags with candy, stickers, erasers, etc. and attached a long loop of string to each one. The kids got to decorate their pinata with multicolored strips and squares of tissue paper. It was such an easy craft, but so much fun! In addition to the personal pinatas and a couple of other crafts, the kids played Limbo, which is always a hoot to watch.

As usual, I took my camera and then forgot to take any pictures at the party. I did snap some pictures of my youngest son breaking open his pinata at home so I thought that I would post a couple of those. Please excuse my in-desperate-need-of-mowing grass. As you can see, it is always a good idea to have a wooden sword on hand just in case you need to bust open a pinata.