Ezra wanted to build something for his party this year. After several ideas and a few prototypes (the mini-crossbows were cute, but a little difficult to make and not very robust), we decided on a woodworking project. We needed a fairly simple project since we assumed most of the boys didn’t have any woodworking experience, and we settled on making a chalkboard based on one of Rob’s successful woodworking classes last year.
In addition to the project, Ezra requested a homemade papier mache piñata, so Bruce got to work on that early in the week. Here are the boys getting ready to paint it — like a globe since it was round.
And because Bruce is Bruce, we also had a second piñata, this one made of ice. Bruce used duct tape, rope and a wooden spoon to sink Hershey bars into our largest pot, and then added more water with our turkey baster.
We weren’t really sure how either of these things was going to work out, but we hoped one would be successful for the party.
There were six guests, all boys from Ezra’s class, plus Ezra and Finn. Bruce set up the backyard with stations for each step of the project, and did one of his famous instructional posters.
Bruce went through the project and showed them how to do each step, and then they were off and running with, not surprisingly, varying degrees of interest and accuracy.
This is Ezra’s best friend, Henry. He’s a very nice boy and Ezra adores him, so I allow him to come over despite the Sharks t-shirt he seems to be perpetually wearing.
A few more pictures of the action:
Once the chalkboards were built, their frames painted, and the boys had devoured some snacks, it was time for the ice piñata, which turned out to be a huge hit, I think both for the novelty of it and that they got to hit it with a hammer. And wear safety goggles. Oh, and the king size Hershey bars didn’t hurt either.
After the ice piñata came the final round of painting, the boards themselves. Everyone was surprised — and some were dismayed — that there was no regular black chalkboard paint. Oh well.
And then we did the world piñata. The boys enjoyed calling out where on the earth they were going to hit.
And they made quite a few dents and finally Bruce took over to bust it wide open. I don’t have video of the mad rush because I was consoling Finn who was too scared to join the craziness and thought he would totally miss out on candy. We managed to get him a few pieces.
At last there were cupcakes.
And singing. Ten year old boy style.
The boys spent the remaining time running around like crazies and trading the candy and gum from the piñata. I think it was a pretty successful, if stressful, party. Bruce and I capped it off with a pitcher of margaritas.
(More pictures here.)