Too Many Balloons

I'm the kind of person that gets a lot of joy out of a little thing, but a balloon is not one of them. Don't get me wrong, I love hot air balloons, and helium balloons are also totally rad, but blow-them-up-yourself balloons don't get much love from me. In fact, I can honestly say that I really really hate them. I get this immediate impulse to pop one using any means necessary just so I can get it out of my way and chuck it in the nearest garbage. I find them incredibly irritating.

This means that it was a big sacrifice for me for Pepster's birthday, because, you see, she loves balloons. I wanted to do something special for her, and knowing how much joy she gets out of balloons, I got this big hairy idea to make rainbow streamers in our back yard using balloons. I enlisted the aid of lots of family members to inflate what turned out to be hundreds of balloons over the course of an entire week:

I had to keep telling myself that I could survive because these weren't for me, they were for my wee one. She totally loved them, so it was worth it. I'm glad to say that the traumatic ordeal is in fact over, and that all the balloons are resting peacefully in the garbage dump, where they belong.

So, where do you sit on this debate? Are you a balloon lover or a balloon hater?