Here we are, celebrating the Quarantucky Derby for the second time this year. Never could I have imagined a year like this, but it’s the year we’re living.
For you out-of-towners, one of the events leading up to the Kentucky Derby is the Great Balloon Race. It’s a fun event that takes place in the morning the Saturday before Derby.
The Great Balloon Race is not exactly a race in the traditional sense. It’s more like an aerial game of cornhole: the goal isn’t actually to speed past other balloons, but to toss a bean bag at a giant “X” on the ground. The bag closest to the target wins.
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I’ll be honest, for a long time, I had no idea there was a target involved. But it’s always been one of my favorite events to watch. The balloons filling the sky and passing over one after another is sure a sight to see! Since they take off pretty close to our house, we have a great view from the front porch and we’ve discovered that hot air balloons and donuts (and coffee for mom and dad) make a great combination!
We recreated this event during our first Quarantucky Derby in May and the girls liked it so much that they wanted to do it again this time! It’s a simple activity to put together and really works their fine and gross motor skills – a win-win in my book!
We started by making their hot air balloons. For each, I cut out 4 pieces of construction paper in a simple hot air balloon shape (I free-handed this, but it wouldn’t be the worst idea to find a template 😉). The girls decorated each of these 4 sheets of paper and then folded them in half, tall ways, and glued the backs together. This gave it a fun 3D effect that they thought was super cool! We used chopsticks to connect the balloons to the “baskets” that were just made from a cut up paper towel roll.
For the “race”, we set up some bowls on the front porch to be our targets. Each bowl was different… different sizes, shapes, depths, etc., which made each target a little different, with varying difficulties. The girls raced from target to target dropping beads (use whatever you have on hand… beads, marbles, small legos) through the paper towel roll baskets and into the targets. Talk about some fine motor and gross motor work at the same time! It didn’t end up being much of a “race”, in fact the girls spent more effort helping one another than racing to the finish line, and that’s a-okay! As they get older, I can imagine the race getting more intense, but for now, they really enjoyed simply making it into the targets!
We also tried out a new balloon “racing” activity. For us, there wasn’t much of a race involved, but for older kiddos, this could definitely become a race! We tied string between 2 trees with a straw threaded onto the string. Using a glue dot, we attached a blown up, but not tied, balloon to the straw… holding tight to keep the air in. When the air was released, the force projected the balloon across the string from tree to tree. Some attempts were more successful than others for this activity but it DEFINITELY brought lots of giggles to our otherwise rainy and dreary morning.
One of the not-so-great attempts…. but also one of the only ones I happened to catch on video
Related to the Great Balloon Race is the balloon glow event. This is something that I’ve actually never attended, but is definitely on my list of things to do. We just had to have our own version tonight with these awesome glowing balloons. The girls loved it ❤️.
These giggles make my heart so darn happy.
We have so many Quarantucky Derby plans for this week and we’re struggling a bit to make it through them all (H is scheduled to have ear tubes surgery this week, so we have had lots of doctors appointments and a very cranky baby to deal with in the meantime). We’re having a blast with what we get to do, though, and can’t wait toto share the rest with you soon!
