Giant Balloon

Ellie and Victoria watched a hot air balloon land on a hill that we could see from the house one morning I was working.  She was excited and told me later all about this “Giant Balloon”.   The next day I was taking Ellie to swimming lessons and we passed a Land Rover pulling the basket for a hot air balloon and I explained to Ellie that basket was part of the Giant Balloon. 

One week later, I called a hot air balloon company by us and asked if we could see the balloon take off.  They said that is was no problem, but to watch your kid, because the fire scares them.  So I woke up at 5:30 on Saturday and called to make sure they were launching.  Good news, they were and I was meeting them in 20 minutes at the petrol station to go to the launching site.  Bad news, my car decided not to start.  I woke everyone up and ended up taking Victoria’s car and just caught the group as they were pulling out of the petrol station.   It ended up that they were launching only 15 minutes away from the house.  I called Victoria and she was in the progress of getting Ellie ready.  I went back to the house, picked them up and then drove to the site.
Ellie didn’t know what we were trying to show her at first, but once she realized why we were walked in a field at 6 in the morning she was so excited.  “Giant Balloon, Giant Balloon”. 

It was a great family outing.  Ellie was able to see the balloon, basket and people all around.  Then 15 minutes later she got to see the fire.  She jumped when they lit the fire, but she loves fire and kept looking.  She talked about the people in the basket, the giant balloon, and the candle (the fire looked like a candle once it took off).

Thanks Victoria for taking a great photo of Ellie and me!