About a year later, we went to a family festival at a local community centre where we queued up with my little boy to get a balloon animal from a balloon twister. It was very busy and we queued for a very long time. Eventually it was our turn, he wanted a balloon sword and that’s just what he got. This balloon sword was THE MOST AMAZING THING EVER, seriously, he took it to the shower, took it to bed, brought it to breakfast the next day – this balloon sword was special. He decided to take it to Montessori on Monday morning, I warned him that he may lose it or it may burst, but he decided it was worth the risk. When I went to pick him up, to my surprise, he still had the balloon sword intact and he proudly walked out into the front garden of the Montessori holding it aloft. Then came a puppy. I later learnt that it lived next door to the Montessori, but had found its way into the front garden of the montessori. How cute, how funny, a puppy running around! Look out Alfie, don’t let it get your sword! Oh no, it has got your sword, Alfie! Why are you laughing? Say bye bye to your balloon sword… BANG!!! The sword vanished. Grief. My three year old felt loss for the very first time. Yes it was just a balloon twisted into a shape, but to him it was more than that, much more, it was special and he loved it, and now it had vanished before his very eyes. He was inconsolable and there was nothing I could do, Daddy couldn’t fix this with cellotape. So I made him a promise. I promised him that we would drive around that afternoon until we found a shop that sells that kind of balloon and then we would go home and I would learn how to make him a new sword. It would be like an adventure! Eventually, and with the lovely shop keeper of an Art and Hobby shop making some phone calls, we found some, bought them and took them home. With the help of a bicycle pump and various YouTube videos, several failed attempts later he was holding aloft a brand new balloon sword like a little pre-school He-Man

Once I had mastered sword making (as you do), I wanted to see what else I could do with these balloons, so I made a dog.
This was fun! I wanted to see what else I could make!

So I practiced and practiced, making swords, dogs, flowers, monkeys – I once even made a balloon dolphin!

I offered to make balloon animals at the playgroup for their Christmas Party and then after that, I started to be approached by parents asking me if I ‘do’ birthday parties. Of course, after a long pause while my internal monologue screamed “SAY YES, SAY YES!!” I said that ‘of course I did’ and started taking bookings for birthday parties, needless to say, I had no idea what I was doing, but by this stage I had learned that anything is possible when you are willing to step outside of your comfort zone!

Read Part 3 “Playcafes”