I thought about it. And I can do better. Next year, I'll get invitations out sooner so that more people can be ready and dress up.
Anyway, this post is pre-party. This is my pinata-making venture. We had to have a desolation of Smaug and what better way to do that than with a pinata Smaug?
I started with two balloons, two toilet paper rolls, a file folder, and a bit of cardstock for the neck. There were lots of randoms lucky coincidences with this dragon that I'm not sure I could duplicate. But I'll point them out for you in case you want to try. First lucky coincidence, the dragon could stand on all fours or lean back on his tail just as well. Getting the multiple angles made it much easier to work on as I went along.
Lucky coincidence number 2. I knew I'd have to work in a way to hang it up, so I used zip ties that we happen to have lying around the house... I had to use 5 ties to get around his fat belly. At first, I thought that was going to be terrible because it left unsightly joints in the middle of his sides. However, it couldn't have worked any better! Those unsightly joints became the perfect attaching spot for the wings as you'll see later.
My nephews came over and visited one day while I was paper macheing (not sure how to spell that since it's not really English). We had a blast "cooking" together. While I was working with the messy flour and water, I gave them marshmallows and toothpicks and showed them how to make a house. Then, I gave them hex bugs to put in their houses on the cupboard. That was a great idea, except the hex bugs were stronger than the houses and walked the house over to the edge of the cupboard where the bugs promptly fell to the ground and one escaped under the oven before we could get to it.
This is a priceless picture of the boys trying to see the hex bug. That bug put a kink in our fun because it wouldn't walk out and it got stuck behind the linoleum (turns out they can't do stairs) and it sat back there just vibrating the whole kitchen to pieces. Steve got very excited about this and told James and his mother "We got a problem!" as soon as they both came home. Great. Thanks, Steve.
In my efforts to fix the problem before the other adults returned home, I tried to pull the oven out myself and failed miserably. I pulled on the door and voila! The door came off. I know you all knew that was going to happen before I said it and now I do too. I'm a quick learner... We had to youtube how to put the oven door back on after spending an hour trying... Yeah. Good fun!
Smaug got to have ears and spikes all down his back. Those were another lucky coincidence. Why? Because they worked! I wasn't sure how strong they would be having a butt joint to the dragon but they were actually incredibly strong! Then I painted them red which was the next lucky coincidence. That was a necessary step - more necessary than I originally realized.
Here is James's costume, or at least part of it. I made him a cape and curry feet. You can't see the feet real well but they were perfect! I just took a square of furry material and sewed some elastic to them and we wore flip flops and we still looked barefoot. I would have been really barefoot if we could have had the party in our backyard but alas. That will have to wait a few years still. We need a backyard and we need to live in a place that supports grass growth.
The wings were the sides of an ice cream bucket which I punched holes through and then attached to the zip tie joints with more zip ties. They were perfectly rounded and sturdy thanks to the bucket shape! Lucky coincidence strikes again!
If you have read the Hobbit, then you will recall that Smaug has jewels stuck into all his scales that add to his armor. I did leave a slight empty spot over his left breast... Pretty snazzy, eh?
More pictures to come later of the smashing of Smaug. It was slightly depressing after putting this much work into it. :) I felt I had lost a friend...
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