Troupe Barr

I am sorry that this was such a negative experience for the parent. The children seemed to have a good time. As far as the balloons taking a long time, it takes time to make the balloons. Blake was not just making dogs and swords. He began by talking to the children about the balloons and made a couple of simple pieces. Then he went into a more detailed Mario sculpture that was 7 or 8 balloons and included Mario's coveralls, shirt, head, nose, mustache and hat. He then made a Boo balloon which involves drawing on the balloon to create the cartoon character. After that he asked the children what they wanted and began making it for them, allowing the children to return to the swimming pool where they had been enjoying swimming until they were brought out for the balloons. Children began going back and forth between the pool and the balloons, telling Blake what the wanted and him making it, including several Princess Peach crowns and Mario and Luigi hats. Many of the adults were going to a parade after the party and Blake made them red, white and blue balloon hats to wear. Overall, everyone seemed really happy with their balloons. As for the face painting, the children were told by someone that they could not go back in the pool with face paint, so none of them wanted face painting at first, despite the encouragement from parents to get their face painted, with the exception of one little boy who I think was not even two yet, who Diana tried painting a flower on for quite some time but the boy would rub the paint off and she would have to clean it and start over, which she did. She also finally got a flower done and he left it on. Per the request of the parent Diana had practiced Mario, Boo, and several other characters form Mario, but none of the children wanted any of that. The only request I heard someone make that she could not do was for a Yoshi, as she had not practiced Yoshi. A lot of the adults asked for American flags and stars for the parade which she painted. Some of the children had flowers, writing, hearts, stitches, etc. drawn once they were mostly done with the pool. As far as the face painting fading off, it was a hot and humid summer day. Face paint will come off when people sweat or go swimming. That has nothing to do with the person doing the painting or even the paints they are using as you want to use paints that are made for face painting and so wash off easily. Again, I am sorry that this was such a negative experience for the parent as the children all seemed quite happy with the balloons and face painting. I would encourage other parents to consider a couple of things when having a party: (1) Children will stand in line for these two activities at a festival, much longer than you would want to. Children are not going to sit still at a party waiting for balloons when there are other activities like swimming at hand, nor should they. They will be entertained briefly with the balloons being made, but they will want to play and not simply wait for balloons. Having another activity like swimming going on is great for the children! (2) If it is hot face paint won't stay on very long. Also, please check the area and furniture you have at your party. The chair that Diana was given to sit in at the beginning collapsed due to a screw stripping out of a brace. She said it hurt her leg but as it wasn't bleeding I assumed it was a minor scrape. She actually ended up with a 4" by 2" bruise on the side of her leg from this, so she was hurting a little more than I knew. I admire her for continuing her work anyway.