Recently my best friend asked me for ideas for her daughter's birthday party. Her daughter Emma is going to be six and invite ten of her school friends to her party. Over a few cups of coffee and a scribble pad, we decided on balloon animals as being something that everyone would enjoy and it would give all the kids something to take home.
As we had a few weeks before the party, we decided to see if we could learn how to make balloon animals ourselves. I mean, we have oodles of time between us - me with five year old twins, a two year old and a six month old baby and Nicki with her six year old, a four year old and a two year old.
We had so much fun researching and learning and our kids were enjoying it too. Because we were doing this together we decided to race through the housework (helping each other) and then sit down at the computer. And because we were having fun, our children were having fun too. The more we laughed, the more they laughed.
We watched a few videos on how to make balloon animals and learned that the best animals and shapes were made from tubular balloons and that we shouldn't blow them up too hard otherwise it gets really difficult to twist them into shape. We also learned that we would easily get sore cheeks from blowing them all up and that we should invest in a pump to help us. One funny thing we found out was how to burp balloons. I mean, we are experts on burping babies but hadn't known about burping balloons. (It's that horrible noise when you let a bit of air out of the balloon. Apparently, burping it makes the balloon easier to work with - just like kids!)
What we eventually decided to do (and we're glad we did) was to buy Balloon Twisting With Sam. This video is so great - we didn't need to wait for it to load on YouTube (although those videos were good too). But having our own video that we can watch whenever we have a spare half hour to practice in is
great. We are learning quickly now and only need some more practice. We'll certainly be ready in time for Emma's birthday party and it will be a real surprise for everyone. It's not really hard to learn how to make balloon animals.
As we had a few weeks before the party, we decided to see if we could learn how to make balloon animals ourselves. I mean, we have oodles of time between us - me with five year old twins, a two year old and a six month old baby and Nicki with her six year old, a four year old and a two year old.
We had so much fun researching and learning and our kids were enjoying it too. Because we were doing this together we decided to race through the housework (helping each other) and then sit down at the computer. And because we were having fun, our children were having fun too. The more we laughed, the more they laughed.
We watched a few videos on how to make balloon animals and learned that the best animals and shapes were made from tubular balloons and that we shouldn't blow them up too hard otherwise it gets really difficult to twist them into shape. We also learned that we would easily get sore cheeks from blowing them all up and that we should invest in a pump to help us. One funny thing we found out was how to burp balloons. I mean, we are experts on burping babies but hadn't known about burping balloons. (It's that horrible noise when you let a bit of air out of the balloon. Apparently, burping it makes the balloon easier to work with - just like kids!)
What we eventually decided to do (and we're glad we did) was to buy Balloon Twisting With Sam. This video is so great - we didn't need to wait for it to load on YouTube (although those videos were good too). But having our own video that we can watch whenever we have a spare half hour to practice in is
great. We are learning quickly now and only need some more practice. We'll certainly be ready in time for Emma's birthday party and it will be a real surprise for everyone. It's not really hard to learn how to make balloon animals.
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