The Balloon Guy’s Blog

Posted By balloongal on June 14, 2009

Mom- encourage your kids to plan a special celebration for Dad on Father’s Day. Let them do most of the planning and executing of the activities since it is Father’s Day. (Husband’s Day can be celebrated on February 14 or whenever your anniversary is). Depending on your children’s ages, they might need some help from you, but let them do as much as possible by themselves.

On the day of the celebration, this is what you can do.

Kids-

Bring Dad in. Sit him down in a place of honor, wearing a “Guest of Honor” badge or button. Present him with things you’ve been working on with love. Here are some suggestions:

• Present a reading of “Why I love my Dad.”
• Sing a jingle you made up about Dad by changing the words of a fun song.
• Perform a skit of “Dad’s Great Because…”
• Give him treats you made.
• Give him a homemade card.
• If you have wrapped gifts to give him, make him guess what’s in each package before he opens it.
• Sit next to or on Dad’s lap and let him read to you.
• Give him lots of hugs and tell him how much you love him.

Mom-

• If you have kids off at college or married, have them call to wish Dad a Happy Father’s Day at designated times. This way they don’t just give up when the phone is busy. If a phone call is not possible, have them send a letter of appreciation for Dad in advance and present it to him during the celebration.

• After the kids are in bed and you’ve got time to yourselves, express your appreciation for him being the father of your children.

Category: Father's Day | 3 Comments »
Tags: Father's Day, party planning with children

Posted By balloongal on June 9, 2009

Are you having a dinner party and want to have place cards to let guests know their assigned seating? Try these fun place card holders to brighten up the table.

You’ll need for:

Bunny-

• Empty egg carton
• Pipe cleaner
• Pom Pom
• Googly eyes
• Scrap of yarn
• Glue
• Scissors or craft knife

Bird-

• Empty egg carton
• Feathers
• felt
• googly eyes
• Glue
• Scissors or craft knife

Using scissors or a knife, cut off the top of the carton and set aside for use on a different project. Cut out the individual sections of the egg carton. Turn them upside down, so the open part is on the bottom. Cut a slit across the middle of the top. This is where the place card will sit. It should be just deep enough for you to fit in a slip of paper used for the place card. You may want to paint the egg cartons and let them dry before continuing, if you want a little added color.

Use the following instructions for your individual animals:

Bunny-

Cut two slits in back of top for ears. Take pipe cleaner and cut two pieces to desired length, fold over to make a pair of ears. Poke pipe cleaner through slits. Put a dab of glue on egg carton and attach a pom pom for the nose. Put two more dabs of glue on and attach googly eyes. Trace the mouth shape you want with glue and place yarn on it.

Bird-

Cut slits in back of top and poke feathers through. Cut small diamond out of felt and fold over. Put a dab of glue on bottom half of diamond and attach to egg carton for beak. Put two more dabs of glue on and attach googly eyes.

Place name cards in their place and place the place cards in their place so everyone will know which place is theirs.

There are plenty more characters or animals that can be made. I’d love to hear more suggestions of how to make others and feel free to send a picture to balloonguyentertainment@hotmail.com and it may be added as picture of the week.

Category: Guests | No Comments »
Tags: dinner party, easy craft, place card holders

Posted By balloongal on May 30, 2009

June 1 is Flip a Coin Day. Should you hold a party or not? Flip. Of course you should. However, what activities should you have and what refreshments should you serve? For all of those decisions, you should turn to the ultimate decider- the coin toss.

Give yourself options. Two options for each element of the party:

What time do you hold the party? What decorations do you use? What refreshments do you serve- sweet or salty, healthy or junkie? What games do you play? Do you have dinner or just snacks?

Invite your guests, when they arrive, give them each a coin. This will help them in making any decisions they need to during the party. It will also help them decide when it’s time to leave. Should I go now or wait a little while longer?

Now to figure out how to end this post. Flip. Abruptly it is.

Category: June 1st- Flip a Coin Day | No Comments »
Tags: Fip a Coin Day, party planning

Posted By balloonguy on May 28, 2009

Last summer, balloonguy Jeremy volunteered his time and talents to help with our local library. Every year they have a summer reading program and last year the theme was Renaissance Kids. During their reading program kickoff event he performed a juggling and magic routine and talked a little bit about balloon twisting, encouraging children to learn new things and grow in their abilities and creativity. At the library, they could check out books about juggling, magic, and balloon twisting, or anything else that sparked their interest.

He also donated a balloon sculpture he and another balloon twister built based on one of Leonardo da Vinci’s flying machines. It was hung up in the library to show for about a week.

This year he is going to volunteer again for their summer reading program kickoff event with the theme Go Green! The kickoff program is at 2pm on Tuesday, June 2, in the Orem Library Storytelling Wing (Orem, Utah). For more information, go to lib.orem.org and look for the Calendar tab.

This is not the only time Balloon Guy Entertainment has volunteered. As a couple balloonguy Jeremy and balloongal Kristin used to juggle at the pediatric ward of their local hospital every Sunday. Sculptures have been made and donated to local PTA auctions. We donated balloon twisting instruction at a camp for kids whose parents either have or had cancer. We enjoy being able to give back to the community when we can.

We are supplied with many more opportunities to volunteer than as a company we can afford to take advantage of. We set up some general guidelines to help us choose, such as never volunteering for a charity that is connected to a commercial venture- especially if it is the commercial side that contacts you. For example, we had a store contact us to do a grand opening of their most recent location. They were supporting a local charity at this grand opening and wanted us to supply some balloon twisters free of charge based on that. The store could afford to hire us and since we would be entertaining at their grand opening we declined to provide them free entertainment despite their support of a local charity. Many times if the non-profit organization itself is large enough to be able to afford the entertainers then we don’t volunteer our time. The employees of these large organizations are being paid for their time and support, and if they can afford it, then so should we. In fact in the past when we have volunteered for such organizations we often find they were quite willing to hire other forms of entertainment with the money they saved by having us volunteer. Last we limit our volunteer activities to once a month, otherwise our calendar would be full of wonderful opportunities to serve, with no room left over to actually support the business by making revenue.

What are other ways performers can volunteer their time and talents?

What are your rules in choosing which volunteer opportunities to participate in?

Category: Entertainers | 1 Comment »
Tags: donating, entertainer volunteer, volunteer guidelines, volunteering

Posted By balloongal on May 26, 2009

When planning children’s parties, remember that the activities at the party can be educational as well as fun. You don’t have to hold back the learning just for the sake of fun.

Younger children don’t care that much about planned activities when they can just run and have fun. As they are running around, provide options. Create an obstacle course for them to run through if they choose. Besides getting the exercise from running around, the obstacle course will help them with problem solving as they have to figure out how to get through each obstacle.
For those that are able to sit still for a little while, a matching game with the incentive of prizes for getting the most matches will help them with their memory skills. (It is ok to let them play with these types of matches).
Encourage their creativity by letting them build with blocks.

For the older children, encourage their creativity by giving them each a piece of butcher paper and some paints. They can create a masterpiece which they can take home, or if it is a birthday party, they can give it to the birthday child as a present.
When it is time for refreshments, present refreshments which they can assemble themselves. Individual pizzas with their choice of toppings help them in decision making as well as teaching them how to fix something in the kitchen.

The options are limitless as to activities at parties that are not only fun but can be learning experiences as well.

Category: Games | 1 Comment »
Tags: Educational Games, Fun and Educational, Kid Fun, Party Games