I love birthdays! Especially my when my kids have one. I haven’t had a birthday in at least four years. But my kids, I can’t wait for them to have a birthday! For my daughter, each year we somehow bombard her with balloons. Its just one tradition that we have kept up. It’s a relatively easy and inexpensive one.

One year, we snuck in the night before and filled her room with 200 balloons. That’s right, 200! Luckily we have a pump that blows them up for us. It was fantastic to hear her wake up and laugh, then get so excited. Another year we stuffed them in her closet so when she opened it to get dressed, they fell on her. She is older now, so it had become harder to actually sneak into her room.

Here is where my husband’s awesome ingenuity comes in. Using trash bags, he taped up a barrier on the outside of her bedroom door. He taped the sides and the bottom. Essentially he made a pocket the size of her door. Of course we did this while she was sleeping again. Then once the pocket was secure, we stuffed it with balloons. Once it was full to the top with balloons, we grabbed some streamers and taped one edge to the top of her door, then set the rest of the roll carefully on top of all of the balloons. The result was an awesome surprise when she opened her door in the morning. The balloons fell on her, and the streamers unraveled into her room upon her. It was fantastic.

Goodness knows how we will get her next year.

-Stephanie Wright