Bungalow23

Forgive me for not keeping you in the loop, Dear Reader, but 2012 is off to a whirlwind start. My family had a fantastic vacation in San Diego the first week of the year, which included touring a magnificent Arts and Crafts home, the Marston House. (Look for a collection of photos and recollections from the tour in a future post.) Then when my family returned we had birthday celebrations for Ms. Bungalow and our 5-year-old son on back-to-back weekends.

It should go without saying, then, that I haven’t had much time to work on the house in this young new year. But that doesn’t mean that I haven’t been making anything. My son’s 5th birthday was a fun opportunity to get creative, particularly with his chosen theme: Angry Birds.

Paper Characters

For my first creation, I made up these paper art characters as an art project for the party. I had the components pre-cut and sorted, then the kids at the party chose their favorite character and assembled it with a glue stick. Then we attached the character to a paper headband so the kids could wear them like a crown. The preschoolers loved this project and a few parents made one, too.

Red Bird Cake

A spherical cake pan was the inspiration for this party creation. When I conceived the idea, I had thought to make the details out of frosting, fondant, or other edible bits. Unfortunately, I ran out of time to experiment and execute that plan, so I fell back on paper character details after I frosted it with red homemade buttercream. And in case you’re curious, the cake was red velvet so the bird was red all the way through.

Green Pig Pinata

My favorite party creation by far was this pinata I made to look like the king of the Green Pigs from Angry Birds. This was made from three layers of paper mache over a large “punch ball” balloon. After filling with candy, I covered the opening with a cardboard cylinder for the snout then layered on the green crepe paper and added paper face details. I was a little sad to let the kids at the party whack this thing to bits, but they had a great time doing it. Plus the construction proved strong enough to let almost all the kids get a shot in before it burst.

I hope you liked this short detour into the at-home dad part of my job. I’ll be back on track with more home improvement and bungalow-based content in my next post. Cheers to you in 2012!

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