Balloon Jinx

Last summer we went to the kid's friend Emily's birthday party. She lives just around the corner, so the kids rode their bikes, and I walked. They each received a balloon when we left, and I tied each kid's balloon to their arm. On the way home, Nate's balloon just popped for no reason. He cried, and I took a picture of course! So yesterday we went to Emily's brother's birthday. When we left, the kids took home balloons again. This time, on the way home, Lily's balloon touched a prickly bush in our front yard, and popped before she got home. I had to laugh. We must have a balloon jinx. One year for Lily's birthday I bought a big bunch of helium balloons, with the intention of sending one home with each kid. During the party, the whole bunch of balloons that were tied to a basket, came loose and flew away. Last year for Nate's birthday I had ordered a package of balloons that had the number 8 on them. I thought there were a dozen balloons in the package (reasonable right?). Knowing that there would be 13 kids at Nate's party, I took the package of balloons to Safeway and asked them to blow them up, plus 4 more (in case we popped one or two). When I came back to get the balloons, I couldn't believe how big the bunch was. I could hardly fit them all in the van! When the party was over, we still had balloons left, and that's when it hit me that the package of balloons had 24, and that I had brought home 28 balloons. The kids loved the extra balloons, and I will remember from now on to find out how many balloons are in the package. Lily's birthday is this weekend, wish me luck with the balloons!