A few little projects

We worked on a couple of fun little projects near the end of April that felt worth documenting:

We live very heavily in an academic world. So many of our friends (most?) are somehow connected to the Academy (most at Duke; some at UNC). Two gals we're friends with from church had their preliminary exams this spring, and we made each of them an "encouragement pinata." What? You didn't know that was thing? 

I mean, it's not, really. But we made some anyway! I knew we were going to be delivering an encouragement of some kind to Jill the day before Cinco de Mayo, so it just made a kind of sense to go theme-y. While we were doing the work to make Jill's, we just went ahead and made Julie's, too (to be delivered a few weeks later). We paper mache-ed a couple of cereal boxes, painted them, and then stuffed them with notes and pictures drawn by the girls. (We made pull-pinatas, rather than the kind that you beat. Although, we did tell them to feel free to beat them, if they needed an outlet for their feelings.)

I also let the girls cut up tissue paper to make "confetti," although I required them to make really big pieces so that clean-up wouldn't be miserable for our friends. Those tiny pieces in this picture were not used. I'm not heartless.

My parents gave Lily a gardening kit, including sartorially-appropriate accessories, for her birthday. They also included smaller kits for Claire and Brynnie, so we had a fun day of setting everything up together.

Painting our plant containers

Gardener Lily is one of my favorite Lilies.

Her favorite part is probably that flamingo watering can. I can't say I blame her.

Behold: my favorite picture of Lily. Maybe ever.

Just a couple of fun days and activities. Both generated large messes, but everyone had a good time, and sometimes the mess is worth it. The pinatas were big hits with the recipients! The gardens floundered, given that the watering was a bit...overzealous. We'll try again sometime.