An Unexpected Balloon Adventure

Some days, art finds you.  This little project grew out of a lazy summer day with my boys.  They've all taken a turn at being fascinated with balloons, but perhaps it's taken root a little more firmly, or more accurately, lasted longer with my youngest, Jesse, who was 6 years old at the time.  Finding some stray water balloons, he insisted that I blow them up the old fashioned way.  Soon, markers somehow "appeared" on the scene, the other two boys wandered in, and the creative juices started flowing...

First, we created a bumble bee, making the body of the bee large and yellow, two medium wings of another color (we had green), and the small head turned out to be purple and less black than it looked before we got started.  Once they were blown up, we tied the end pieces together.  Since these were not balloons made for creating balloon animal art, we just played around with some trial and error on getting them to twist together without popping.  Only the ends are flexible enough for this.  A touch of marker created body stripes, and Jesse proclaimed him ready to buzz around my bedroom.

Next came a request for a butterfly!  This one required 5 balloons.  Remember, if you're using basic balloons and not the kind made for this type of art, you can't bend or twist them or they'll pop!  We picked one color for the larger back wings, another for the front wings, and blue for the body and head.  He's drooping a little from the weight of those wings, but the boys didn't mind...

Jesse then pondered over some of the random balloons we had blown up, and suddenly an idea took shape in his mind.  He showed me the pattern, I got busy tying, and a rocket ship was born!  He was, naturally, very proud of it.  I am, naturally, very proud of him!

All of the boys gathered around as we found the perfect  way to bring the rocket to life!  My husband's box fan has a tilt option, allowing it to blow straight up into the air.  They discovered that they could release the rocket into the stream of air and it would fly around to delighted squeals and laughter.  Soon the butterfly and bee were able to secure flights on these updrafts, too. 

All in all, the afternoon was spent gathered together- inspired and silly, crafting and laughing, and memories were made.  It was an unexpected and delightful reminder to keep your eyes open for those spontaneous moments when opportunity sneaks up on you, ready to fill up those promising lazy days...