Making Hot Air Balloons!

We made hot air balloons today with the balloons we got at HEB. It could have been better balanced if you used like a protractor and a ruler and a one hole puncher and get all math savvy and such but we just MacGyvered it.  Andy used his pocket knife to cut three holes into the top part of an applesauce container and tied the ribbons to it. One balloon could not even hold the container so we used two (luckily, we have two kids so we can get two free balloons). We found out that it can carry one peanut person.

Or two cheese puffs to be light enough to still float.

We figured this out by putting a bunch of puffs into the container and then slowly eating them one by one.

“It’s still too heavy, should we eat more?” “Eat more.” “It’s still too heavy, should we eat one more? “Eat one more.” Yes, it’s also a good way to get your toddler to eat more. Then with two puffs, the magic happens and it is just the right weight to float yet still be heavy enough to slowly drift down too.

Sean spends the next half hour chasing the balloon around and learning how to let the container bounce off his hand and float up again. At the beginning he was hitting it upwards really hard and making the puffs fall out resulting in the contraption floating up into the ceiling. A little practice and he learns the beauty of the “light touch”. Oh the awesomeness is so great that Andy (in the background) can’t contain himself.

Another use is to stand on the bottom of the stairs and then saying, “Hey, Andy, are you hungry? Would you like exactly two cheese puffs?” Then let go of the puffs and let the recipient grab it from upstairs. The fun (and bad jokes) never ends here at the Molloy household.