It was a cool Saturday in June where an unsuspecting brother-in-law was surprised for his 40th birthday. This celebration was complete with out of town family and lots of friends to stop by and wish him well! I, the prosecution, was in charge of kid activities! (When you are a former teacher, this is always my gig.) I scoured the shelves to find the awesome colored bubbles I had seen advertised. I shelled out way too much money for bubbles but was so excited to see the delight on their faces as their blue, green, yellow and purple bubbles floated up into the sky! In honor of the birthday, I had the 3 cousins wear shirts that said, “Happy 40th Birthday Uncle Nick.” White shirt with black lettering to fit the theme, of course! There was a lul in the action and I sprang to my feet with glee to unpack these treasured bubbles. You would have thought I handed these kids the keys to the candy store! I was the first to try them out. I couldn’t get a bubble big enough to even float away. Barb (the sister of the party boy) had more success but soon looked like a purple people eater covered in the bubble solution from head to toe! Not a problem because the package says they will wipe clean with soap and water. This was certainly not our experience! We started out with wet wipes and moved quickly to hot water and soap. This did lighten them a bit but in no way did our hands come clean! When the kids could get the bubbles to form, it was really neat looking and they rather enjoyed having them pop all of their clothes to see what pretty shapes they would make! This was an especially fun activity for my daughter, Julia! No worries because they say the bubbles wash out of clothing. So, that night after we returned home, I threw it in the washer only to have it come out looking the same way it did when it went in. Every mother at the party had the same experience and my sister’s porch has some lovely blue bubble marks that have yet to come clean.
As ideas sometimes do, this is one that fell short! My judgment in this case is save your money, wardrobe and sidewalk from the same fate as ours and opt for the “oldy but goody” old fashioned bubbles. Sometimes, you just can’t improve on a classic.
Case dismissed!
