Time to Murder and Create, And Time for All the Works and Days of Hands

My excellent babysitter helped my girls throw a princess party, complete with streamers, princess hats, necklaces, streamers, cake and balloons galore (51, according to my daughter Hannah, who says she counted before her little brother started popping).  With all the balloons underfoot, we've been getting creative about ways to put them to use.  One great way is Papier Mâché.  At least in theory.  Maybe not so much when the gooping flour/water mixture is chafing your hands and splattering like some sort of acid rain around your kitchen no doubt to be rediscovered some years later.    


Our Papier Mâché creation is rather pitiful at this point.  The balloon popped prematurely, resulting in a collapsed portion that we made a sad attempt to patch.  But we will persist with the project.  It's my nature, after all, to plod along once I've started on something (in life and Papier Mâché alike) long after it ceases to matter or make sense.  Perhaps I'll post the results.  


But as I was contemplating the fate of our creation, I smiled at the memory of a menagerie of Papier Mâché creatures one of my brothers and his wife created at a family reunion a couple of years ago -- much to the delight of all the nieces and nephews.  They labored for days, forming a lounging man, a fish, a multi-legged insect of sorts, and all kinds of other creatively wonderful things.  And then we hung them from a noose in the ceiling of the cabin we were renting and bashed them to bits to allow the candy we stuffed inside to rain down.  I, for one, was against the murder.  The creation was too precious.  My kids are still talking about it.  In fact, my girls saved the severed tail of the mermaid for months until I had the chance to quietly dispose of it.  

Do you like creating things with your kids?  In our family, I have found that when it comes to crafts, the joy is often in the journey rather than the destination.  At least that's what I tell myself when I throw away the love's-labor-creations that took hours to make and then became clutter.  

In case you'd like to try some Papier Mâché goodness of your own, here's a pretty good how-to link.