The Rainbow Piñata

Rachel pleaded for a piñata at her party, because everyone else has been doing it, and she had never had one before. So, Nicole found a rainbow piñata on-line, and filled it with chocolate coins wrapped in gold foil. While the kids were occupied with the pin-the-gold-on-the-pot, I ventured outside to try to hang the piñata from a tree in front of the building. Unfortunately, the desired branch was way up there, and my first throw of the rope didn't make it high enough, and then fell back down onto another branch above the stairs, where I couldn't reach it. When everyone came outside a minute later, I held Rachel up to retrieve the rope (pictured). We abandoned the tree idea and moved to the playground area on the side of the building.

Fortunately, the parents of one of Rachel's school friends are from Mexico, and they told us what to do. Instead of trying to hang the piñata directly from something, we ran the rope between the fence and the top of the jungle gym, and hung the piñata half way between. There was plenty of room there for swinging the bat and retrieving the coins. I'm not sure why I didn't think of this, because I'm sure I've seen it done this way before, but I was grateful for the advice.

Rachel was first in line, and Nicole sorted the kids by birthday after that. Rachel puts a few good swings on the rainbow with her pink foam bat, but to no avail. She's been practicing hitting the ball in the back yard and at the park down the street a few times, and she swings it pretty well, frequently connecting solidly. So she was ready. She bats left-handed. Rachel was followed by a number of kids who didn't seem to have any effect on the rainbow, but towards the end of the line, a weak spot finally developed.

Rachel's turn came around for the second time, and she swung for the weak spot (she claims), and smashed it, and on her second swing (I think), the first coins came flying out. One more swing and it was all over. (Actually, we could have kept going, because only one side of the piñata was destroyed, but I dumped it all out.) I think Rachel was very happy to have busted her own piñata, because yesterday on the drive to school, she recalled it as her favorite part of the party.