A Very Techie Rooftop Party

     When I think back to one of my absolute favorite events that we performed at, this would be it. It was an event in NYC for a software company, so naturally, it was all adults.  The venue was gorgeous.  It was a private restaurant on the rooftop(yes, the rooftop!) of a very tall building...to make it even better, we had the Empire State Building in the shadow.  It was maybe 10 blocks away, but it gave us some awesome photos!

     Rose and I arrived about an hour before it started to get dark and setup our equipment.  We had the chance to talk with the photographer who, ironically, had the same name as our contact for the event.  That created some confusion until we realized they had the same name, but were two different people!  

     The guests(employees) started arriving, smiles on their faces, ready to have a great time.  They had just had a long, busy day at work and were excited to relax!  You would be amazed at how much the balloons added to the event.  We made some huge balloons that people took turns passing around to each other and getting photos with.  

     Everyone had such a good attitude and was excited for us to surprise them with whatever we could come up with.  Some of them wanted to try to stump us with odd requests...sadly for them(or not, depending on your point of view), we're really good at improv-ing sculptures we haven't made before. 

    The "Boss" who had hired us was such a great sport!  He rocked his own costume that had everyone laughing!  Recognize the character?  The Mad Hatter...Alice in Wonderland is one of my favorite movies, so I love making this and references to Alice!

 This fun couple had a little bit of spice...his tag-line for the rest of the night was that he liked to "monkey around!"

 This photo makes me laugh.  Rose loves her job, but sometimes she gets very focused on what she is creating.  I harass her about it because it never fails...she can be smiling the whole event(and she usually does), however, the moment that the camera comes out...she gets that look of concentration.

 Who ya gonna call?  He loved the Ghostbusters backpack!...and so did the five other people who "borrowed" it from him so that they could take photos.

 She was so sweet!  The Hello Kitty headband accented her personality and smile perfectly.

 These two were quiet, but willing to let us surprise them with something super cool!  All smiles, their hairpieces were just the accessory needed to put their outfits over the top.  We had such a fun time laughing with them and the looks of awe when we finished were priceless!

Last photo!  Our photographer got such a good photo of creating the Mad Hatter top hat.  You can see that this thing is massive!  Everyone was confused until the finishing touches....which I will admit, I love.  I love the look of wonder that they get on their faces when making something amazing.  I don't do magic, but the look that they give me: you would think that I do.  Just call me the balloon magician!

This has been another dose of "Tristen's Travels."  I hope you enjoyed it!  So tell me, what is your favorite sculpture that you saw created?

--Stay Twisted, my friends!

Banana: The One about the Despicable Me party!

     Chances are by now, you've probably heard about Despicable Me....you're familiar with the Minions, Gru and his adorable little girls.  Being an entertainer, I am VERY familiar with them.  I have made so many balloon minions since that movie has come out that I could probably create them better than the original artists can.  Well, out of balloons, I mean.

See what I mean?  We make a lot of Minions!

     This party though, we had a chance to create minions in a different way.  Dad contacted us about his son's first birthday party and that they wanted to do something special to add that "WOW" effect.  After a few emails, phone calls, and texts, we had the perfect plan.  We designed a giant minion arch that would frame the cake table(and give them a fantastic place to get awesome photos).  To add character around the room and draw everything together, we created 3 different minions.  They were about 3-feet tall and could be put all around the room.  They looked so cute!

It's so fluffy, I'm gonna die!

     The day finally came for the party to happen and we had everything ready to go.  It only took a few hours to put everything together and I was amazed at how much it transformed the room.  Mom had made some cute centerpieces and big sister was there to "supervise."  We had a fun time chatting with them while we worked.
My absolute favorite part of the whole thing though, was when the birthday boy arrived.  He had just started walking and was enamored with the minions...It was heartwarming to watch him inspect them because they were just as big as he was!

The Minions and the Arch 

     It was fantastic getting the opportunity to make his birthday extra special!

Olaf, Elsa, and Snow...Oh my!

We had such a fun party this past Saturday.  The theme was "Frozen," the Disney movie...if you haven't gathered that from the post title!  :)

     Myself and our fabulous face painter, Janelle, were performing for a birthday party.  Ben, the birthday boy, loved Frozen and his mom, being the wonderful Mama that she is, put together an awesome birthday party!  We walked in and were greeted by all of the adults and the sight of cupcakes!  I don't know if you know this about me, but I absolutely LOVE cupcakes.  That alone was enough to make me smile!
     Janelle and I set up and started doing our thing.  I must have created, at least, five Olaf and four Elsa shaped balloons...which when you consider that there was only 18-20 children there...is a lot.  :) Janelle did quite a few Olaf paintings, too!

     Mom did a fantastic job pulling everything together.  The cupcakes and birthday cake were Frozen themed.  She played games with the kids like "Pass the Snowman" and "Freeze Dance."  If you haven't seen 15 four and five-year-olds dancing and then try to freeze simultaneously, you are missing out.  It is the most adorable thing that I have ever seen!
     Mom even had an ice cream bar for the kids to eat. My favorite was the ones with gummy bears.  She did an outstanding job, to say the least.  Dad had his hands full, too!  The kids were watching Frozen in the downstairs, ice cream and playing on the second floor and there was one little girl that was insistent on investigating the upstairs...it was comical to watch her try to sneak up the stairs before her mom noticed her and mom snatching her up before she could get too far.  :)

     We finished up the party with a fun skit for Ben.  It's a great way to make him feel like a rockstar on his birthday!  There were lots of smiles and giggles.  The adults were laughing as hard as the kids were at the very end. We presented Ben with his birthday gift, an Olaf that was just as big as he was, and his own balloon birthday cake!

My only regret about the whole thing, we had to dash out the door for another event, so I didn't get to eat one of those delicious-looking cupcakes...next time.  Happy birthday Ben!

To There and Back Again: A Balloon Artist's Tale

Welcome to my little slice of the internet!  It's mine. All mine.*Insert Dr Evil laugh here* Ahem, excuse me. The power of cyberspace seems to have gone to my head a bit.
     I'm sure you're wondering what the purpose of this little blog is.  I'm glad you asked! As a balloon artist, I get to meet a wide array of people with lots of different personalities. I've been a balloon artist for about 9 years now, so I've got a few good stories in my collection of the people that I've met. The good, the funny, the interesting, and sometimes downright bizarre stories...and I want to share them all with you.  Interested?  Keep reading.