Christmas is for Kids

Christmas is over for another year. Just think only 360 more shopping days until Christmas 2012!!!
We had a good Christmas this year. We went to my brother in law's place for Christmas Eve. All of my wife's family was there. Including 3 kids under 5 years old. They had a great time. Christmas really is for the kids. As usual, we ate & drank too much. We were at home for Christmas morning with our own kids. We opened our presents & stockings.My daughter gave me this adorable balloon doggie salt & pepper shaker set.

Then we drove 5 hours to my family Christmas. There were 26 of us for dinner at my sister's place. All of the kids on my side of the family are over 21. But we have one lady who is expecting and another nephew just got married so maybe in a couple of years there will be some babies.

My buddies daughter is a huge Mario fan so I made her a balloon Mario. I'll have to work on Yoshi.

She loved it. Unfortunately, she said that one of his eyes broke later in the day. But she got some good pictures before it broke.
I also dropped by another buddy's place. His 3 grandkids were there so, of course, I had to make them some balloons. Princess's for the girls and a dragon and sword for the very active little boy. I haven't seen them for a couple of years, so they were excited to get their balloon creations.

Employee Charitable Fund

Every year my company raises money for their Employee Charitable Fund. Employees can direct money to their favorite charity through payroll deductions. There are also events to raise more money for charities. We held a kickoff breakfast, sold Tim Horton's coffee, held a market of used books & DVD's with games of chance and a silent auction. We also had a raffle with prizes like indoor parking for a month, Toronto Maple Leafs tickets, movie passes and gift cards for The Keg, The Bay and Tim Horton's.

I made balloons for donations at the Marketplace. Here are a couple of pictures:

Cooperative Church Camp

This year at CCC at Sharon-Hope United Church the theme "Son Surf", a beach background.
So, I made some beach creatures. There is a different animal each day with a message for the kids.

 I also made a life guard chair.

 I enjoy the challenge of creating new things each year fir the kids. The kids really like them as well. There is always a discussion about who gets to take the balloons home at the end of the week.

Time to get up to date!!

Well, summer is over. Time to update the old blog!!
Look what I found!!

Aren't they cute? Doggy chew toys that look like balloon animals. I found them at Pet Value pet food store. And they were on sale so I just had to buy a couple. They had a Doggy, A pig, a cow and I think the other on was a sheep. I didn't get the sheep.
Now I have to figure what to do with them. I do not have a dog. I'm trying to figure out how to use them in my act some how. Maybe throw an uninflated balloon into a bag and pull out one of these toys.
I like to find oddities like this.

Old friends ... and new ones, too!!

For over 20 years we rented a cottage a Balsam Resort. Over the years we met some characters from Sarnia & Ottawa who have become good friends. We haven't been to Balsam Resort for a couple of years so we decided to have a reunion weekend of sorts.

That's me, my lovely wife Maryann, Pete,Terri, Ron, Debbie, Judy & Gord.
Although Balsam Resort is a great family resort near Coboconk, Ont operated by John & Judy Beall, we had a lovely weekend hanging out with no kids this time.Swimming, eating, fishing and reminiscing while enjoying a few cold bevvies around the campfire at night.

We also met some new friends:

Of course, I had to share my love of balloons with these 3 lovely young girls from Buffalo NY. I also made some balloon sculptures for their boy cousins who were out fishing. Their mother told me that they went to see a clown at their local library. The clown said "I only make dogs. Don't even think of asking for something else" Sad, isn't it. That someone would make balloon sculptures and not want to improve their repertoire.
I really like the look on their face when they get a balloon creation unexpectedly. These girls had fun with their balloons. And the grown ups enjoyed watching as well. That's the cool thing about balloons ... there is no age limit.

Balloon Moose ... Not!!

I know! This is not a balloon. But I thought it was really cool so I had to share it.
On the weekend we went to an artisan's festival at Fairy Lake in Newmarket. One of the thing that we saw was this cool moose ottoman. It was made in Waterloo. They also had elephants, bears, hippos and bull dogs. They come in various patterns or solid colors. I fell in love with this fellow so had to give it a good home. We call him "Mumford".

Thenin the afternoon we went to "Polo for Heart". It is a polo tournament to raise money for the "Heart & Stroke Foundation". My credit union, Pace Credit Union, was a major sponsor so I got free tickets. I thought that they would be just general admission. But when we arrived, we found out that they were for the VIP tent. The tickets include lunch and open bar. We had a great time rubbing shoulders with the mucky mucks.
Mercedes-Benz was another sponsor so we went car shopping.

This car has gull wing doors and is a mere $214,000.00.
We even saw a couple of polo matches. All in all, a wonderful way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

My nephews wedding

This past weekend I attended my nephews wedding. This is the first wedding of one of my niece's or nephews.  The ceremony was held in a beautiful garden setting in the country north of Napanee Ontario. Then off to the reception in Tweed. I was asked to be the MC at the wedding reception.
I made a bride & groom for the happy couple.

A couple of little girls seemed fascinated with my handy work.

There were about a dozen kids there so I was kept busy making balloon creations for them.