Magic gone amok

Each year, the local newspaper sponsors a Peeps contest. They challenge kids of all ages (including the kids at heart) to craft a creative diorama using Peeps. Last year, my daughter entered a Hannah Montana-themed piece. She was among hundreds of entrants. Her entry was included in the on-line article from the newspaper.

This year, each of her brothers decided that they wanted in on the action. Her youngest brother made (completely by himself) a box out of paper, with an open top and a door at the bottom -- A Peeps Dispenser! He was pretty proud of his piece and even more so when he saw it in the paper!

Her other brother decided to go for a magical themed "Magic Gone Amok" entry. Using black paper, he made a large cylinder and then added a rim on top to make a magician's top hat. In it, he added a LARGE assortment of Peep bunnies piled to the top. All colors accounted for! There was a magic wand to add and then a cape around a Peep chicken to complete the effect.

My daughter, this year, borrowed a bit from her recent Greek mythology lessons in class and created six creatures from "Peep Mythology" -- including Peeps imitating Medusa, Zeus, Midas, Pegasus, Hades, and Athena.

My wife submitted pictures of the creations to the paper and we all looked forward to seeing them online at the paper's site -- for most papers, that's all there'll be soon :-(

Three days ago, my wife got a call from the paper saying that my oldest son had actually won the youth division! Not only would his top hat show up online in the parade of entries, but would be included in the physical paper and he'd be called out by name. Just Born, the makers of Peeps, would also be sending him a prize package of Peeps paraphernalia - including something about "enough Peeps for a week's worth of dinners" :-) We still have a cupboard full of the ones that we didn't use for the contest.

They're all really excited. I can't wait to see what they come up with next year!