Cinco De Mayo 2024
What is it about celebrating Cinco De Mayo that white people can’t resist? Maybe its the stepping over into a different cultural experience that most of us white folk know nothing about? Maybe its the need to celebrate a holiday with an emphasis on bright, beautiful colors that give you endless leeway to be as positively shameless and gaudy in your decorating scheme. Or perhaps its the prospect of endless tacos? Either way, its a colorful, fun holiday and it should be celebrated!
For under $20 I got all of the party supplies, decorations, and even some candy for a homemade pinata!
I wanted most of the decorations to be overhead, to give the kids a sense of abundance when they walk in the house. I love these confetti-filled balloons from the Dollar Tree because if the balloons are popped overhead or under, its more excitement for them (and, ahem, cleanup for me!)
Next I took this extra long plastic tablecloth and cut it into strips about two inches wide and hung it with tape across the room as a festive partition. It went perfectly with the balloons that I blew up and taped to the ceiling!
For the next project I made a paper mache pinata. I have never made a pinata before and it takes WAY more time to dry than I realized. Luckily I made it a day in advance and was able to put it in my large dehydrator overnight at 95 degrees for 12 hours, otherwise I advise making it days in advance! It was really cute and cost me only the price of candy and tissue paper to make it since I already had balloons and newspaper on hand so it was definitely worth it, it just takes more time than you think.
I mixed equal parts of flour and water together then decided to thin it out even more with water so I could soak the newspaper strips in the mixture then wring them out. It took two full newspapers to cover this balloon.
This was the next day when it was finally dried and had about five minutes until the party! I still had to put candy in it and decorate it with tissue paper. Last minute, I bought a package of red crepe paper for $1 and it was the best decision. I was hoping to make a strawberry and it worked the best to wind around the pinata.
I literally had five minutes to finish this so quickly dotted it with glue and very loosely twisted crepe paper around it. Then I glued some green tissue paper on it for leaves and some brown paper dots for strawberry seeds. All of that hurried work and I forgot to take a picture!!
I filled it with gum, suckers, and sticky men from the Dollar Tree…
And finally, my greatest purchase, the Piece de Resistance, this awesome cookie kit that I snagged at Walmart two months prior for $1.23!! I was so excited about the price and knew I had to use it for this!
I used this stack of colored paper and scrunched it into puffy shapes as decorations and more flair for the food and table. It worked great!
Finally I set out all of my treats. Tortilla chips, dip, cheetos, taco cookies all were set out on bold, colorful plates.
I even froze some ice in advance in fun shapes for the kids which absolutely mesmerized them. I always forget time and again that it really is the simplest things that impress them. I could have skipped everything else and just had an ice party with unique-shaped ice cubes and they would have been just as thrilled.
I also made some Brazilian Lemonade with blended limes, sweetened condensed milk and sugar. I served it in plastic cups with cute straws and wrapped the Dollar Tree flower bracelets on them. The kids absolutely loved it!
I threw in some whipped cream and a maraschino cherry for mine because, well, I deserved it.
Look at how cute these kids were! Their happy expressions and excitement for the whole evening made it worth it!
Oh and the best part! I bought two boxes of taco shells cooked some taco meat and sprinkled it with cheese, lettuce and diced tomatoes and served it buffet style. Something about a huge tray of tacos is simply irresistible!
Finally for the pinata smashing! I have a giant sombrero that I have had for years. Its ridiculously oversized. Right before the pinata smashing I ran inside to look for a blindfold and decided on this. Best decision. It made the CUTEST photo prop!
The most exciting part!!
The pinata held up great! Almost every kid got two rounds of swings before it finally broke! I was super impressed since it was made up of just dried flour and newspaper.
Picture time for all of these awesome kids! Most of them were happy to pose for my pictures! With only two out of eight kids pouting by the end of the night, haha.
