Act of Kindness: Outside Balloon Avalanche for a Birthday

12 and Up, All Ages, Elementary, Middle School, Preschool

Acts of Kindness

For Friends, In the Neighborhood, Under $10

By Sheila @ Pennies of Time
April 23, 2013

I tried and tried to find the originator of this idea . . . and couldn’t. Here is a link to the image in pinterest that inspired me. AND, through the magic of blogging comments, I now know the original pinner was Misty McCarty–You can see her fun board here.

We wanted, as a family, to surprise a friend with a BALLOON Avalanche as she was coming out her front door. Her FRONT door! I knew that would add complications if it was raining or super windy (thank goodness it wasn’t).

So, I took a stab at it this past week, and it worked! I’ll definitely refine it (I’ll add those comments in the post) And, just now, I found someone who did something similar, inside the house. Simply Kelly Design: Balloon Avalanche.

The supplies you’ll need:

3-4 trash bags depending on size

painter’s tape and packing tape

balloons (at least 30)

tape measure

scissors

Take the trash bags and 1) cut the bottoms of and 2) cut down the middle so that they open up.

(the kids can totally help with this)

Lay the out the trash bags, one at a time, and tape them together.

(For the front doors in my neighborhood, I needed the plastic to be 64 X 86 inches.)

I taped them on both sides . . .

had no idea how strong they would need to be in order for this to work outside.

When I do this again, I will add tape across from left to right and top to bottom to reinforce the trash bags a bit more.

Then blow up a bunch of balloons as big as you can (without making them want to pop). We tried to blow up a variety of sizes, and all that did was make the small ones want to fall to the bottom.

Keep them the same size.

Then, load your kids up into the car. Go, go, go!

We decided this to do this early in the morning just as the sun was coming up.

We parked several houses down and walked with great stealth to her house.

IMPORTANT: Getting the plastic up over her front door took two people.

Just tape the sides up and add some tape across for extra support.

Tape the bottom of the plastic so that the balloons don’t slide out.

Add the balloons (be careful if there is a wreath!).

NOTE: I contacted her husband ahead of time to let him know we were doing this. That way, he could cover for us if we were making noise with the tape.

She LOVED it!