Deflated Dreams

My friend works for a non-profit organization that offers after-school programs for little kids led by local college students. Before spring break, they like to throw a party for the children at the local public pool. The kids always enjoyed playing in the water, but my friend’s group wanted to do something different last year. They looked into a bounce house rental for the party. 

The day of the event, the rental company came and set up the bounce house without a hitch. The after-school program volunteers (college students) were so excited about the large toy that they unfortunately did not pay attention to the rental company’s safety instructions, which included a weight limit. The volunteers decided to try out the house before the kids got there. Three large football players began jumping at the same time. The inflatable house, which was meant to be used by a few small children, could not withstand the pressure and popped.

When my friend, the director of the program, arrived, she found the volunteers huddled around the deflated bounce house, trying to find the hole and fix it. But it was no use. They had ignored the rules and now had to pay for the damage. The only thing they could do now was get the bounce house out of sight so that the children wouldn’t be upset by it. The kids ended up having a great day in the pool as usual, without any idea of the extra fun activity that was supposed to be awaiting them.

If you’re considering bounce house rental, make sure you familiarize yourself with the rules to save yourself disappointment and extra charges. Proper use of an inflatable house will ensure that everyone has a good time at your party. 

Jumping Castles

We celebrated Halloween at my mom’s house last week. All of her 10 grandchildren were present in addition to some other 10 children from the neighborhood and other friends of the family. My older sister’s daughter Farrah had the idea of giving the party a specific theme such as “Medieval Times” and suggested that all the kids came dressed  as the different kinds of people from those times. Although it was not mandatory most kids came dressed that way and we also rented two jumping castles to make it even more fun.

We had royal characters such as princes and princesses. We had peasants, religious figures, and members of
the army who showed up in armor suits that were made up of aluminum material. We had maids who were servants of the royal families and we had slaves with fake chains around their hands and feet. We also had the entertainment crew of kids who wore old-fashioned clown and magicians suits. These kids were truly creative! Farrah searched for some medieval music online and played it all night.

The adults at the party were envious of much fun these kids were having. We had nothing more creative to do than to sit down and talk as we usually do. Where did our imagination and creativity go? These kids split up in two groups and each one pretended to belong to different kingdoms, one owning their own  jumping castle. I had to say I was very impressed with the synergy of the group and how there was not an instant where any kid fought against other kids. We let them play all night as the next morning was a Saturday and it was cute to see their little tired faces at the end of the night as if they had worked so hard. What a blessing to have a big family!

Carnival Games - Jumping Castles

For our church’s annual community party this year, instead of having it on the parking lot of our church which is in the back of the building we decided to have it on the street. Yes, we had a street party! We rented carnival games such as a dart game, shooting gallery, ring toss, break a plate, and even a jumping castle. We wanted to have something way more fun this year than our past parties where it has been mainly just a gathering of people to eat, talk and listen to music. We wanted to attract more audience, especially those hard to entertain!

We had the party on a beautiful Sunday. We chose Sunday because it is the day that most families are

usually home relaxing and have nothing else to do. We didn’t think Saturday would have been a good day because even some of us church brothers and sisters had personal things we needed to do that day. We kept track of each person coming to the party with paper tickets as we usually do and we were able to break a record. One hundred and fifty people came to our church, when our congregation is only about 60 people. We usually only attract about 30 new people each year but this time we were able to attract three times as much people. Isn’t it amazing?

My hypothesis is that people were mostly attracted by the carnival games we brought. We actually make sure to note it on our flyers and invitations. These types of games, although mainly for kids, do still attract some adults and thus the whole family is able to have fun together. Check out a picture of our party below. We hope some of these people get inspired to come to our meetings.

Popcorn Machine Rental

Last Saturday night was my husband and I’s 10^th anniversary and we wanted to have a get-together with all our friends and family members. I’m not sure if this is your experience, but when it comes to mature adult parties such as this, guys are the least in numbers, even when the celebrated person is their male friend. So in order to have a more even number of men and women I had to be creative, especially because the same day of the party there was going to be a boxing match by two pretty popular boxers on TV. So I invited everyone to come celebrate with us and told them we would watch the fight and rent a popcorn machine! This way they could bring their kids who would be too busy eating their popcorn while the adults had fun of their own.

I wasn’t sure the idea was going to work…it was quite innovative, but it did! I was able to see more of my

husband’s male buddies this time around. I think I’m going to do this again. My husband was in charge of our last anniversary party five years ago and he did something special as well. He had some of his friends from his poetry club (my husband writes poetry as a hobby) come to the house and recite some of their work. When we invited our friends and relatives but we noticed that the majority who came were our more intellectual guests.

I love the diversity of the people we have close to us. Fortunately I married someone who has different traits as me and this makes our relationship interesting; we are always learning something new from each other. The popcorn machine we rented this time did keep the kids distracted. They went to the upstairs living room and watched a movie themselves. 

My Birthday Party Inflatable

It was my birthday last week and I had about 25 people, friends and family, in my house. I was turning 30 and I wanted to do something different. I know that 30 is not that big of a number but it is a milestone and I wanted to do something I never did at any of my birthday parties. I wanted to have a birthday party inflatable. Call me crazy, as this was an adults’ party, but when I was a child I never had an inflatable. My parties were all the same each year; with the piñatas, and the games, and the adults dancing on the dance floor while we kids came up with our own fun ideas.

Don’t get me wrong, they were great parties, but my parents were not the creative kind and usually stick to

the same activities every year. Even the games we played were always the same. The cake was always the same type. I was jealous of all my other friends when their parents did different things. So this year, I decided to take it up a notch.

I hired a local comedian to come do a jam at my house. I also had a friend of mine who is a dance instructor to come give an hour-long dance workshop before we opened up the floor for dancing; this way my non-dancing friends felt a little more comfortable dancing. But before we did any of this, we warmed up jumping inside the birthday party inflatable (though a few of us at a time since it could not hold too many adult weights). I have to say that it made so many people laugh, people whom I haven’t seen this happy in a while. I was glad I came up with this idea and I hope to come up with more ideas such as these that bring out the kid hiding inside each of us.

Fun Field Day

The other day, I met up with my friend, who is an elementary teacher and just finished the school year. She told me that the students had worked so hard that year that the teachers planned a special reward for them: a “field day.” The students were told to come in bathing suits or clothes they could get wet. The teachers set up different game stations all around the playground: a slip and slide, a water balloon fight, tug of war, sack races, 3-legged races, and a dunk tank, where students had to hit a target to see their favorite teachers fall into the water. The kids loved all the activities, but the big hit of the day was the cotton candy. One of the teachers had a connection with a party supply store and was able to get a cotton candy machine for rent at a discount.

The kids were excited to watch the cotton candy being made, and the teachers were thrilled that the process was so easy. A cotton candy machine consists of a funnel-shaped pan in which you pour sugar. The sugar is heated and spun simultaneously, and shoots out as threads through tiny holes in an outer bowl. Using a paper stick, it was simple even for the children to gather the threads and take away their delicious treat. The teachers used pink, green and blue sugar to create a rainbow effect. All the kids wanted to try every color. Luckily for the teachers, the children had plenty of activities to keep them busy at the height of their sugar rush!

Finding a cotton candy machine for rent really made the school’s field day unique. Both the teachers and the students had a lot of fun and ended the school year on a positive note.