03 September 2013

Bringing Pinterest to Life: The Birthday Party Pigpen


So our activity which was intended to give the kids a chance to run and frolic and chase piggy balloons into a pigpen with fly swatters was a total bust.

Let me set the scene for you. My very creative sister in law and niece stayed up late with me the night before and drew unique pig faces on no less than 20 pink balloons (purchased at a very inexpensive outfit that shall remain nameless).

I should have been suspicious to the quality of the balloons when a couple of them popped completely unprovoked while floating gently in the living room. Alas, there were far too many other details calling to me for me to give that thought a, um, second thought.

Back to the party scene: so we've passed out fly swatters to all the kids, we've explained the idea of the game, we've pointed out the 'pigpen,' and I proceed to release all the little piggies. The little kids and the big kids alike are a bit perplexed, but they slowly move forward with their swatters, aka pig herders.

Then one of the piggies in the grass pops randomly.

Two of the big kids looked at each other with a twinkle in their eyes, and they got the hang of the game, running back and forth once or twice.

The littlest kids, including the birthday boy, watched and started to move towards the piggies to herd them to the pigpen... But by this point the pops were too much and one thing was clear: all the pigs were destined for death.
You can see the piggies popping in the air in this photo!

As the last of the piggies popped, I solemnly announced to all the guests of my son's second birthday party that what was supposed to be a herding game turned into a pig slaughter.

And then I apologized to my friend Jill who is a lifelong vegetarian.

Here's the link to the original Pinteresting Inspiration:

And if I'd had a pinteresting bone in my body, it might have looked something like this:
Our Pigpen game looked NOTHING like this.