Wednesday, June 16, 2010

WFMW--Dollar Store Balloons

I know, this is so obvious as to make you wonder how I get along in the world. But last week, we had six amazing babysitters graduate from our local high school, and while we wanted to honor them, I needed it to be cheap. Also, I hated to get them a tchotche that would either collect dust or get donated before they even left for college. So I decided on balloons from the dollar store. For six regular balloons in the school colors and one mylar graduation balloon, I paid about $4.50. It made a nice little bunch.

My mistake one mistake was trying to carry too many bunches at once; one girl got a dozen balloons because I couldn't untangle them! My other mistake was tying them outside; a seventh bunch for our niece was gone before she ever saw them. But the others were mostly very excited to come outside and see them announcing the happy news. I also used some old gift cards (my mother had made personalized ones for me years ago) and I just wrote "Happy Graduation Day from our family!" with our names, punched a hole in the corner, and tied it to the bunch with ribbon. They looked really cute and made the girls happy. And-added and totally unexpected bonus!-resulted in on-the-spot invitations to three more graduation parties! I had to laugh--that was not our intent at all but it was kind of their families to include us (and it made sense--I know they didn't want to invite us and have it look like a "gift grab" but were happy to include us in the family joy).

Celebratory gifts with big impact for less than $5 works for me! What's working for you this week? Go share here!

1 comment:

Mom24 said...

What a wonderful idea! Balloons were the only decorations Rebekah wanted at her party, they're always fun.

It's nice that you remembered your sitters. I'm sure it made them feel special.