A rather 'noisy' evening with more than 300 balloons, 40 intermediate-age kids, and games all involving balloons, most of which ended up burst. A fun time even though it was a little chaotic!

We started with water balloons outside, despite light rain at the time. The kids threw the water balloons to their partner, not at them, then took a step back and continued doing so until the balloon was dropped and burst. The pair whose balloon 'survived' longer than anyone else's were declared the winners - and this time around it was two girls!

Back inside there were a couple of relays, one involving the kids racing up the hall, popping a balloon by sitting on it, then carrying out the 'animal imitation' instruction contained in the broken balloon. The other relay was a variety of 'balloon hockey' - hitting a balloon with a rolled-up newspaper-stick around a chair at the other end of the hall. Inside each balloon was a marble which may or may not have helped with steering it!

Other games included:
- the kids passing balloons around in one big circle (as in the second row of photos below) and making sure they were holding one when the music stopped, otherwise they'd be 'out'
- stomping on balloons tied to other kids' ankles, the aim being to pop them
- being the first to eat a cracker before drinking a cup of water and then blowing up a balloon
- sitting on the floor in two long lines (as seen in the last two photos below) and endeavouring to hit balloons over the other team to land on the floor behind them.

The evening really did go off with a bang (many times over)!!!